Keldabe Kiss: A Mandalorian Love Story
by Marek Vulen
Summary: A small bounty on a backwater planet leads Marek Vulen to a chance encounter, an encounter that will take him on a journey to discover more than he could have ever hoped for.


Keldabe Kiss: A Mandalorian Love Story

Chapter 1

I sat in a run of the mill cantina near some backwater spaceport on a warm summer night. It was my kind of place; not too big, no overpriced drinks, and no over-dressed socialites crowding the place and annoying me. It was just a nice small bar on a remote planet in the outer rim. I came out this way for a number of reasons. I had just turned 25 years old and had never really left Mandalore on my own for any extended period and I needed to see a few things for myself. In addition, I had just ended a relationship that lasted eight excruciating years, and I needed a big change of scenery. When I approached my buir, Doneb, with my intentions to leave for a while, he actually seemed relieved. He gave me the use of his old Skipray blast boat and 30,000 credits to start my journey.

He also gave me his prized possession, an antiquated Mandalorian Assault Rifle. My ba'buir had used it during the Clone Wars and had given it to my buir, who used it during the Galactic Civil War. It had been upgraded as needed throughout the years, although, after looking it over, it could still use some upgrading, it still fired true every single time.

My family was considered both traditional and non-traditional by Mandalorian standards. For the most part, we held true to True Mandalorian ideals. We mostly worked as farmers and mercenaries, just trying to "make our way in the universe" as the saying goes. The non-traditional part came in the form of our names. There are many families who go by the belief that a name has to mean something in order for it to be a good name. On Mandalore, that means that your name should be based on strong words in Mando'a. My ba'buirs and even my buirs did not share this belief. My father always used to tell us, "You can have the strongest Mandalorian name in the galaxy but it doesn't mean anything if you can't live up to it. Don't let your name define you. Let your actions define your name." I know it sounds kinda hokey, but it's become something of a mantra for me, and a good guide while away from home.

So, as I was saying, I was seated at the bar in a cantina at the rear end of space. I didn't have any real reason for being on that particular planet beyond refueling and minor repairs and I decided to relax a bit before taking off again. I sat on a stool on the left-hand side of the bar where it met the wall. From my seat, I got a pretty good view of all of the patrons, but more importantly, I could see both exits. My left arm rested on the bar next to my helmet and a frosty mug of the local ale. My right hand, holding a datapad, rested in my lap, its light bathing my face in a blueish glow. Since I had nothing to do, I decided to check the local Most Wanted postings, figuring that if I found a scumbag worth bringing in, I might as well fatten my wallet a little while I waited.

Ahead of me, a devaronian bartender worked his way toward me while he was "wiping down the bar." For the time of day, the cantina was pretty sparsely occupied, and I guess the bartender figured that a Mandalorian must have SOME good stories, given our reputation. Personally, I've never liked or trusted devaronians. With their demonic horns, pointy teeth, squinty eyes, and high-pitched voices, they always seemed like they were doing something underhanded. So when the bartender got close, I casually flipped my data pad over and took a sip of ale from my mug. I savored the bitter taste as it coolly slid down my throat. I was definitely going to have to come back here for another one of these one day.

"So uh, you here on a job big guy?" The bartender inquired in a high-pitched nasally voice.

I grunted without looking up, "Nope, and even if I was, it's no business of yours." I'm only 1.68 meters tall and at that time in my life, there was nothing that annoyed me more than being reminded that I was shorter than average. Names like, "Sport" and "Big Guy" just irritated me to no end, but I didn't want to make a scene, so I just shot the bartender a glare that said, "I don't want to be bothered." And the bartender held up his hands and walked away.

I flipped the datapad back over and reviewed the bounty listings, thinking to myself as I read. _Let's see, 34-year-old human female wanted for petty burglary with a bounty of $500.00? Too small. _The door to the cantina opened and a dozen individuals walked in as I brought up the next file. _62-year-old blue-skinned twi'lek male wanted for arson with a bounty of $1000.00? That's better but still too small to waste my time on it._ A smile edged up on my face as I read the next entry. _Iridonian male, age unknown wanted for battery, assault on a safety official, attempted murder of a safety official, 2 kidnapping charges, another assault charge and disorderly conduct. Bounty is set at…20,000 credits! Well, I guess I might be here for a while after all._

Suddenly the bartender was standing next to me looking over at the crowd that just walked in. "Ok mister Mandalorian bounty hunter guy!" He proclaimed in a raised voice. "You can stay here, but don't cause us any trouble ok?"

I glared at the bartender then looked out at the room as suddenly all eyes were on me. _I think that's my cue to leave_, I thought, quickly downing the last of my ale, hopping off the stool and putting my bucket on. It took a couple of seconds for my HUD to come up and when it did, I found myself staring into a broad torso. I glanced up and saw an Iridonian standing in front of me. He stood at about 2.1 meters tall and a plethora of deep scars covering his gray skin. In fact, he looked kinda like the Iridonian whose bounty I wanted to cash in on. Actually, he WAS the Iridonian whose bounty I wanted to cash in on.

It was then that I realized that I made a mistake in choosing to sit where I had. While it was true that with my back to the wall, no one could sneak up behind me, I had literally put myself in a corner and was now surrounded by my target and five of his companions. Not wanting to make a bad situation worse, I turned up the output on my external speakers and looked up at the zabrak.

"May I help you?" I asked in my most gentle voice.

"Yeah, Mandie!" came his gruff reply "We don't take kindly to no bucket heads here."

Now at this point, one part of my personality took over that I try to keep a handle on. In my family, I am known to be a stickler when it comes to grammar, and I have annoyed everyone I know at least once by correcting them. I also happen to be a bit of a wise ass and I frequently use sarcasm, also to the chagrin of my family. When you take those attributes, add to it a good dose of Mandalorian stubbornness, and wrap it up in beskar'gam, you are asking for trouble.

So before I could stop myself, I replied, "So that means I can stay! Good because I really like this place!"

The zabrak and his cronies looked confused and I heard a round of "huh?" The Iridonian stepped closer and glared at me as if his stare could penetrate my bucket and frighten me. "What did you just say?"

I casually shrugged, "You used a double negative." When he still looked confused, I explained it to him. By this time, more people had entered the cantina and our confrontation had actually started to gather quite an audience. I shook my head. "See, you said that you do not take kindly to NO bucket heads here. That, my friend, is a double negative. So by saying that you don't take kindly to NO Mandalorians, you are actually saying that you do take kindly to us. So thank you for your hospitality."

Around us, the crowd began to chuckle at the spectacle of a 1.68 meter tall Mandalorian staring down, or up in this case, and giving grammar lessons to a being that was a full head taller than him.

The zabrak was now visibly angry, "Now listen to you little punk! Get out of here before me and my boys take you out and expose your vital organs to daylight!" He moved to grab me but stopped short when he felt something pressed against his stomach.

During our brief conversation, he didn't pay attention to the fact that I slowly worked my blaster pistol out of its holster. I now had him dead to rights, but I was also presented with a problem. While I had no qualms about killing an individual, especially one that threatened to disembowel me, and the bounty record DID say "Dead or Alive", I had to deal with the fact that if I shot the zabrak, his cronies would most likely jump me. And while I had every confidence in my skills as a fighter, I doubted that I could take on five individuals at once and within a confined space to boot. Without conscious thought I jumped up throwing my head forward, managing to land a blow right on the zabrak's chin making him stumble back into the three cronies, all human males, behind him. I raised my blast pistol, quickly shifted my aim to the right, and fired off two quick shots at the bothan and the twi'lek on my right hitting both of them in the chest, dropping them.

Around us, the crowd was already screaming and dispersing. The Iridonian and his three remaining companions recovered quicker than I'd liked and my target slipped behind his lackeys, using them as a shield. "Take care of him!" He ordered and bolted towards the exit. The three men rushed towards me. I managed to fire off two more shots, taking out two of the men, before the third crashed into me and slammed me up against the wall. Stars briefly flashed before my eyes. I shook my head to clear it, raised my right hand and brought the grip of my pistol crashing down on the ear of the man, knocking him out cold.

I started toward the door then paused, jabbing a finger at the devaronian bartender, making him jump. "You stay put mirsheb," I ordered. "I'll deal with you later."

I exited the building and looked to my right then left and saw my target quickly walking away. He briefly turned his head to look at him and a look of utter terror crossed his face when he saw me. He turned his head back around and immediately started sprinting. I couldn't help but smile. _He's running _I thought to myself, _I love it when they run_. I reached into one of my belt pouches and pulled out a short cylindrical tube and attached it to the barrel of my blaster. I raised the weapon, took careful aim, and fired, hitting my target in the rear right shoulder. I removed the attachment from the blaster and put it back in its pouch. I double blinked at an icon in my HUD and my bucket connected with local surveillance satellite, superimposing a layout of the city in front of my eyes with a flashing strobe heading away from me.

The tube I attached to my blaster contained a micro transmitter encased in a ball bearing, which fired a split second before the blaster bolt. The tube also served to diffuse the power of the bolt just enough to cauterize the wound left by the bb entering the target's shoulder. As far as he knew, he had just been shot by a blaster bolt. He didn't realize that now there was literally no place he could run where I would not find him.

The transmitter did not have a very long range so I started off with a decent run to track down my prey. One thing I had come to realize in my short time hunting was that once in danger of being caught, most scumbags sprint away from you, burning up most of their energy in a very short time, causing them to try and hide after a relatively short distance. So I paced myself so as not to burn out my energy reserves, lest I am forced into another physical altercation.

The zabrak actually ran farther than I thought he would and led me on a merry little chase that wound throughout the city. After 25 minutes, I noticed the beacon, and therefore the Iridonian it was attached to, had stopped moving near the mouth of a darkened alleyway. From the layout in my HUD, it looked as if he was pressed up against the wall. As I neared his position, I changed my visor to infrared mode and immediately saw his red and white silhouette through the wall. From where I stood I could tell his back was pressed against the side of the alley closest to me with his left hand raised. In his hand, I could make out the shape of a hold out blaster. He looked like he was waiting for me to either run by him so he could shoot me in the back or run headlong into him where he would shoot me in the face.

Since I wasn't in any particular hurry to die I decided upon a third option. I reached for a stun grenade with my left hand, while switching the pistol in my right hand to "stun". I side stepped a few paces to my left, activated the grenade and lobbed it toward to the alley. I quickly switched my HUD from infrared back to normal as the stun grenade flew through the air. It bounced perfectly off the far wall, entering the alley a split second before going off, giving my target little to no chance of avoiding it. I cautiously entered the alley and found the Iridonian on the ground struggling to get up.

I put him down with two stun bolts and holstered my weapon. I walked over cuffed the scumbag and began to search him, removing a second blaster and 4 knives in the process. Now I had to get this guy down to the public safety office, so I brought up the location on the map in my HUD and my heart sank. _Six blocks!_ I groaned to myself as the thought of lugging an unconscious zabrak six blocks did not appeal to me on any level.

It was then that I spotted a two-seat swoop bike a couple meters down the alley. I looked back up and down the alley for an owner as I walked towards the bike, skeptical of my apparent good fortune. I looked the bike over and it seemed in pretty good condition. I swung my right leg over the seat and settled myself down in the saddle. I didn't see an ignition sequencer so I pulled out my omni-tool and started to loosen the bolts on the ignition cover, hoping that I might be able to hotwire the bike.

Just then a figure walked into the mouth of the alley. Well "walked" might be too strong of a word to describe how this Rodian moved. Even from where I was I could have sworn I could smell the alcohol on him, even through my helmet. Besides his movement, what really caught my attention was the ignition sequencer he held in his right hand. He took a couple of stumbling steps and lifted his head toward the swoop bike only to see me seated on it. A look of confusion came over his face.

"Hey buddy." he slurred, "Are you the guy I lost my bike to? How'd you get here so fast."

I quickly looked around, and seeing no one else in the alley I shrugged and nodded. "Yep, that's me. I'm a lot faster than I look. Now hand over the ignition sequencer." I held out my hand to Rodian and waited as he stumbled toward me. After what seemed like an eternity, the inebriated Rodian finally made his way to me and dropped the sequencer in my hand.

"Here ya go, buddy!" He said turning and stumbling out of the alley, completely missing the zabrak slumped on the ground, muttering "Another swoop bike lost! My wife is going to k-kill me!"

I shook my head and used the sequencer, just to make sure the bike would start and felt a wave of relief wash over me as the engine roared to life. I got off the bike, pumped another stun shot into my target. I hefted him onto the back seat of the bike, secured him down and took off.

Soon I was pulling up to the Public Safety office, unloading my "cargo", and dragging him into the building. Once inside, I dragged my quarry to the front desk and let him drop to the floor, the loud thud jolting the Human officer who was seated behind the desk out of a nap. He rubbed his eyes then looked up at me.

"Err…what can I do for you?" he asked.

I pointed to the floor. "Got a bounty I want to cash in on."

The officer leaned over the desk to where I was pointing, his eyes going wide with surprise when he saw whom I brought in. "Oh, Jeevus Gor! You finally got him!"

At first, I thought "Jeevus Gor" was some local exclamation. Then it dawned on me that I never actually looked at the name on the wanted sheet. I looked down on Jeevus, then back to the officer and nodded. "Yep, I actually just sort of bumped into him."

The officer chuckled. "Well it doesn't matter how you get 'em in, so long as you get em in, right?" He reached over and hit a button on the desk, sounding a buzzer. A transparasteel door opened up and two more officers, another human and a twi'lek entered the room and hefted Jeevus off the floor, dragging him back to a cell. The officer behind the desk took out a stack of credit chits and handed them to me. "Well, here ya go! Now maybe you can get off this rock!"

I took the chits and nodded, slightly confused by what the officer had said. I had just arrived on the planet a few hours earlier and hadn't thought my presence was that well known. Nor did I believe my name to be so infamous as to be known on a backwater planet. _Whatever,_ I thought to myself as I quickly turned around and walked out of the building.

I hopped back on the swoop bike and headed back to the cantina where I started out. I was actually surprised, when I walked in, to see the devaronian bartender still in the exact spot where I told him to stay. He shrieked and dove under the bar, which drew a round of laughter from the patrons. I walked up to the bar and reached over it. I grabbed a hold of one of the bartender's horns and hauled him up. With one quick motion, I slammed his face down on the bar, breaking his nose. The bartender's hands flew up to his face as his head rebounded. I reached out and grabbed a fistful of his tunic and pulled the bartender to me so his face was inches from my helmet.

"Listen here _shag!_" I scolded, "I don't take too kindly to people causing trouble for me, especially when I'm not out looking for it." I shoved him back causing him to bump into the bottles of liquor behind him, knocking a few over. "But since your actions didn't result in me getting killed AND I got paid for a bounty, I'm going to cut you a break." The bartender sighed with relief. But jumped again as I jabbed a finger at him. "You just became my informant on this planet. If I come here looking for a bounty, you BETTER have good information on it or else I'm going to start chopping bits off of you, starting with your horns, understand?"

"Y-y-y-yes s-s-sir!" He stammered. "My h-hor…"he stopped short as his eyes went wide as the realization of what I had just said came over him. I guess the thought of having the thing that defined his "manliness" cut off was too much for him because his eyes then rolled up into his head and he passed out behind the bar.

I turned around and received a round of applause from the cantina patrons. I smiled behind my helmet and took a deep bow. "Thank you. Thank you! You are too kind. Remember the 7:30 show is completely different from the 5:30 show. Enjoy the roasted nerf!" With that, I left the cantina.

Once outside I checked my chrono and realized that it was further along in the evening than I had realized so I decided to spend the night on-planet. I brought up the city directory in my HUD, found a hotel next to the spaceport, climbed on my newly acquired swoop bike, and headed off.

Once at the hotel I checked in and made a quick sweep of the room I was given. As far as hotel rooms go, I had been in far worse. The room itself was a pretty standard tourist trap style room; a table off to my left, to the right, was a tiny food prep station and the fresher was next to that. Ahead of me, the room opened up to the common area/bedroom; complete with a queen sized bed and holo-net transceiver that was glued to its stand, lest some unsavory guest attempt to make off with it.

Content with my lodgings, I headed back to my ship, gathered a change of clothes, brought them back to my room, and headed back out to grab a bite to eat. I actually went back to the cantina again and was pleasantly surprised to see that my meal was on the house. And it turned out to be a pretty good meal, roasted nerf with local vegetables and a nice tall mug of ale. I took my time and savored a nice hot meal that I didn't have to prepare. I was going to take my time and enjoy this.

After I finished eating I decided to head back to my hotel room to get some much-needed rest before heading out the next day. I paused for a moment before entering the room after I had unlocked it with the key card I was given. For some reason, I felt a jolt of adrenaline and my gut was telling me to be on my guard. I cautiously entered the room with my blaster drawn. I peered into the room and found it exactly how I had left it: dark and empty.

I sighed and re-holstered my gun. I reached up with both hands, released the seals on my helmet, lifted it off, and placed it on the table to my left. I closed the door without turning around and hit a switch on the wall that activated the glow panels in the room and bathed it in a soft yellow light. I took two steps forward when I heard the tell-tale sound of a blaster clearing its holster. My heart began to pump with adrenaline again. _Stupid dikut!_ I cursed myself for not listening to my instincts before I entered the room. I slowly turned to get a look at my assailant, assuming it to be a friend of Jeevus here to get back at me for turning his friend into the authorities.

As I completed my turn with my hands raised I found myself staring at the business end of a slender blaster pistol. It was the kind of small pistol that small time criminals usually carried as they were cheap to buy and usually got the job done. I looked beyond the pistol and was immediately taken aback. The person holding me up wore green armor and a helmet with a distinctive T-visor. _A fellow mando'ad_ I thought to myself, _this should be interesting._

"You took my bounty." The intruder said. "Give me the money and I'll let you live."

Chapter 2

I was slightly taken aback when I heard the feminine inflection in the intruder's voice. I stole a quick glance at the intruder's armor and found a very curvaceous form under a tight black body suit. I brought my gaze back up and looked squarely into the barrel of the blaster pointed at my face and grinned.

"Sorry, but I'm not in a real "giving" kind of mood. Her body stiffened in anger at the brazenness of my reply. Her finger curled around the trigger and… a small blue flash came out from behind the barrel of the blaster followed by a puff of smoke.

My grin widened and I sprang into action. I grabbed her wrist with my right hand and twisted, not enough to break the joint, but just enough to make her drop the weapon. I continued twisting her arm, pinning it behind her as I worked my way behind her body. I snaked my left arm around her neck and under her chin. She struggled to free herself, but my grip never slackened.

"Now let's see what you look like," I said as I turned her around to face the mirror on the back of the door to the room. I shifted my left arm back and grabbed her helmet in my left hand causing her to struggle even more. In one violent motion, I popped the neck seal and ripped the helmet off showing me the face of my intruder. Her soft yet strong features framed in wavy dark brown shoulder length hair were stunning, to say the least. But what I really found striking were her piercing green eyes that held a look of both ferociousness and beauty at the same time. _Beauty and strength,_ I mused, _perfect traits for a Mando female._

I was brought back to reality when the would-be thief stomped down on the instep of my as of yet unarmored right boot. I yelped in pain and released my grip on her right arm. She spun around and brought her knee up to my groin, and while I might have had a codpiece there, she still hit me with enough force to make it hurt a bit.

I turned my pain into anger, grabbed her shoulders and shoved her as hard as I could. She stumbled backward and landed on the bed. I immediately jumped on top of her straddling her waist and pinning her arms to the bed at her wrists.

She struggled for a moment and fixed me with a fiery glare. "If you try to rape me I swear I'll castrate you." She warned.

I rolled my eyes. "Will you shut up and stop struggling for a second! I'm not going to rape you! If I were, you wouldn't be conscious right now. Besides, I'm not really the 'raping type'." I forced myself to calm my voice down even as I struggled to maintain my grip on her.

My captive's struggling began to wane as she realized that I was not going to let go of her. "So what now?" She finally asked.

I let out a sigh and thought for a second until I came up with an idea. "Well, we have two choices here. I'm going to let you up and if you want, we can continue our little fracas until it reaches its final stupidity…"

"What's the other option?" She asked through clenched teeth.

I shrugged. "I let you up and then we sit down and talk this out like civilized beings."

Her struggling settled down and finally stopped, her chest heaving as she tried to catch her breath. She let out an exasperated sigh. "Fine, we'll do it the second way. Now get off of me!"

I released her wrists and jumped off the bed. I reached my right hand out to help her up. "I'm Marek Vulen by the way."

She took my hand and hauled herself up, brushing the hair out of her face as she stood. "Mahr'la." She replied. "Mahr'la Shya."

I let go of her hand and gestured to the table near the door. "Have a seat." I headed towards the small conservator in the even smaller food prep area. "Can I get you something to drink?"

She shook her head, "No thanks."

I shrugged and opened the conservator and was surprised to see it well stocked. I reached down and grabbed a bottle of ale. "Suit yourself." I closed the conservator door, popped the cap off the bottle, and sat down across from Mahr'la, a little weary, but still marveling at her beauty. It was this marveling that also disturbed me a bit. I have always prided myself on keeping my composure in any situation. The fact that her looks alone were able to disarm me enough to put me at even a momentary disadvantage was a cause for concern. I cautiously took a sip of my ale and savored the taste. After what seemed like an eternity of silence I finally asked, "Now what do you mean by, 'I stole your bounty'? I didn't even know who you were until a few moments ago, much less that you were after a guy I literally bumped into."

She sighed, "I've been tracking Jeevus for over two weeks. I was in a position to finally take him down when YOU showed up and bagged him!"

In her voice, I could hear a lot of annoyance. Some of it had to be due to the fact that she had worked so hard to obtain the bounty and I just arrive on the planet and nab it without much work or struggle. But I could also tell that wasn't the only reason for her frustration. There seemed to be something else feeding it so I decided to press the issue.

"Why was catching this guy so important to you anyway?" I asked. I had a lot of experience with people taking bounties out from under me and never tried to rob the person who collected on them. I had learned that when that happens, you just move on to the next target. The fact that Mahr'la was clearly hard up for the money meant there was something else going on. I snorted a laugh and asked, "What are you stranded here or something."

Surprisingly, she bowed her head and meekly replied, "Yes."

My eyes went wide with shock, more so from the fact that I was right when my question was obviously sarcastic. I quickly decided to change my tone, "If you don't mind my asking then, how did that happen?"

She sighed again and stared at the table. "I was chasing a bounty from the Kuat system and followed him here. It was some low-level exec that got caught embezzling 200,000 credits and then ran. He must have known I was following him because he pounced on me as soon as I dropped out of hyperspace. I managed to cripple his Z-95 but not before he blew out the nacelles on my Y-wing. I ended up ejecting, using the cockpit as an escape pod, before the rest of the ship burned up in the atmosphere. That was 3 months ago; I've been here ever since."

I nodded thoughtfully, "And you've spent this time collecting what bounties you could in order to buy a new ship."

"Or at least buy passage off this rock." She finished.

Suddenly the words of the officer whom I had left Jeevus with echoed in my head. When he said that maybe I'd finally be able to leave this planet, he had mistaken me for Mahr'la, which meant either I looked feminine, Mahr'la looked masculine, or the guy just wasn't all that observant. I decided to go with the third option since I preferred not to think that I looked like a woman, and Mahr'la was definitely too curvy to be a man.

"So did you catch the guy you were after?" I asked, trying to cover up the fact that I was checking her out.

Mahr'la kept her gaze down at the table. "Yeah, I got him. He was supposed to have some associates here to back him up, but I never ran into any of them before I nabbed the guy. Without a ship though, I had no way to get him off the planet, so I couldn't deliver him back to Kuat. So I turned him into the Safety Office and was thanked for my services, given a paltry fee for my 'services' and turned back out. That's when I started collecting on local bounties. I was one big bounty away when you showed up.

Mahr'la lifted her head and looked at me inquisitively. "Speaking of which, I have a question. Why did you grin at me when I threatened to shoot you? Weren't you worried that I might have tried to kill you?"

I shook my head. "I knew you weren't going to kill me."

She tilted her head. "And how did you figure that?"

"Simple," I replied. "If you were going to kill me, I wouldn't have even been able to turn around to face you. If you were going to kill me, you would have, or should have, slotted me as soon as I took off my helmet." I leaned back in my chair and took another casual sip of my ale. "Once I turned around I knew you weren't going to kill me because I noticed your blaster pistol was set to 'stun'. The reason my grin grew wider was that I knew your gun was going to misfire."

Mahr'la's face scrunched up in confusion. "How did you know that?"

I set my ale down, got up, and picked her blaster up from where it landed on the floor after I knocked it from her hand. I looked over at her and asked, "May I?" She nodded her approval and I disassembled the barrel from the rest of the gun. I held the barrel up to the light and nodded. I handed the barrel to Mahr'la so she could inspect it herself. "You have so much carbon build up in there you're lucky the gun didn't blow up in your face." I shook my head, "Don't you ever clean your weapons?"

"Well, I didn't exactly have a cleaning kit after MY SHIP BLEW UP. And I guess I was so focused on earning enough money to leave that I forgot to buy a new cleaning kit." She explained. I could tell she was digging for an excuse, so I decided to rib her about it.

I took on an incredulous look. "And you call yourself a Mando'ad!" I scolded mockingly. I walked over to my duffle bag, pulled out my cleaning kit, walked back to the table and handed the kit to Mahr'la as I sat down. "Here have this one. You can keep it."

She gave me a confused look. "Won't you need it later on?"

I dismissed her question with a wave of my hand. "Nah. I have three spare kits on my ship." Then an idea popped into my head that made my heart start to race. I was actually getting nervous! I tried to clamp down on my feelings but failed as I relayed my idea in a shaky voice. "Um…speaking of my ship, I just thought of a way for you to get off this rock."

"What, you want to whisk me away with you?" She scoffed, "So then you're the big hero saving the _poor Mando girl who lost her ship_?"

I fumbled for a response. "Well yes. I mean no. I mean I'm not trying to be a big hero." I was beginning to get frustrated. Here I was, a 25-year-old mando'ad, in the prime of his youth, having just taken down a thug and five of his friends and I couldn't even ask a girl a simple question. _Why is this happening?_ I pondered. _I've never had a woman affect me like this before. It's almost as if…_I cut myself off before I could finish that thought. This woman had just tried to shoot me in the face and rob me. I should have offered to take her up and dump her out of the airlock, not stumble all over myself like a love struck idiot.

I regained my composure. "I just figured, I could take you out of here and if you want I could drop you off somewhere nearby where you might find better work." I shrugged. "Just trying to be friendly that's all."

Mahr'la smiled, sending a jolt through me. "Relax, I was only kidding. I would be glad for the assistance."

I returned her smile. "Great, we can leave first thing in the morning. Now, why don't we get that blaster of yours clean and I can get to know you better."

Mahr'la's eyes widened, "'Get to know you better'? Was that a come on? If so, it was horrible!"

I felt my face getting red. "No, that's not a come on. Sorry, I'm not really what you might call a 'lady's man'."

She smiled again, "It's ok. It's kind of cute watching you fumble all over yourself."

I raised my eyebrows, "Oh so you think I'm cute do you?" I asked accusingly.

Now it was her face that turned red. "Can we get back to cleaning my gun?"

I decided to drop it and just nodded. And said, "Fine." I got back up and walked over to the bed to get my assault rifle case. I returned to the table, sat down, opened the case and began to disassemble the rifle.

Mahr'la looked up and nodded at my rifle. "That's yours?"

I gave her a goofy look, "Nope. It belongs to the Head of State of the New Republic. I'm just holding it for him."

Mahr'la scowled. "Alright, I get it. Are you always this sarcastic?"

I shrugged. "Sorry, it's an old habit. In my family, sarcasm is its own language. I try to keep a clamp on it while I'm away from home, but little bits still slip out every now and again." I finished my disassembly and grabbed the barrel brush from the kit that Mahr'la had just set down. "This is actually a Family heirloom. My ba'buir first used it in the Clone Wars, he passed it down to my buir who used it some during the Galactic Civil War, and I got it when I started my journey. I've been upgrading it here and there while I've been traveling."

I finished running the brush through the barrel and held it up to inspect my work. I put it down as I waited for Mahr'la to finish using the cleaning cloth, which she was now using to clean the laser emitter. Over the next hour, we traded cleaning tools and brief stories about our lives. While she didn't reveal too much I got the sense that she came from a very traditional Mandalorian family, much like I did. What had started out as a botched robbery attempt turned into a surprisingly decent conversation, and I actually started to enjoy myself.

We had just finished cleaning and reassembling our weapons when my helmet started to beep. Mahr'la gave me a puzzled look. "Uh. Expecting a call?" she asked.

I got up, grabbed my helmet and put it on. "Nope," I said after I activated the external speaker. "I set up motion sensors and holocams on either end of the hallway." I brought up the HUD and double blinked at the camera icon bringing two small boxes into view. I counted 6 armed being coming down the hall towards my room, three from each direction. _Osik._ I thought to myself. I quickly started packing everything up. "Come on. We're going." I ordered.

"Why?" Mahr'la asked. "What do you see?"

"You said you never ran into your bounty's friends?" I countered.

"That's right."

I finished packing, grabbed my assault rifle and slapped a fresh power pack in. "Well get ready," I warned. "Cuz I think we're about to meet some of them.

Without a word, Mahr'la stood up, quickly putting on her helmet and checking her own weapon. I directed her to take a position in the fresher, while I turned the lights off, flipped the bed onto its side and took position behind it.

I contacted her on a wide cast. "Mahr'la set your comm. to frequency 56.98.2."

"Done." Came her reply. "And how can you be sure so these guys are after me and not you?"

"Because," I growled, "I took out all but one of Jeevus' cronies and he isn't among the group outside." I synched my rifle sights up to my helmet, then double-checked the camera feeds. "Now stay frosty, they're at the door."

I shut the camera feeds down and focused my attention on the door. There were three loud bangs on the door. My world slowed down as adrenaline coursed through my veins, sharpening my senses and reactions. On the fourth, the door burst open and a tall muscular figure filled the doorway, his frame silhouetted by the faint light in the hallway. I quickly moved my targeting reticule over the man's heart and fired.

**Chapter 3**

The blaster bolt sizzled through the air and struck my target right where his heart was if he was human. Unfortunately, the thug I shot was a Nikto, and an armored Nikto as well. The bolt burned through the plastoid armor he was wearing but did little actual damage as the Nikto's tough skin ablated of the rest of the bolt's energy. Mahr'la opened up a split second after I had, her shot hitting him in the shoulder. Together, our shots knocked the Nikto back and to the side a few steps. I switched my rifle to full automatic fire and pulled the trigger twice more, walking my fire up the Nikto's frame, hitting him in the center of his chest, his neck and finally his eye, dropping the thug to ground.

From the right side of the doorway, a slender form poked into the room and darted back as a shot from Mahr'la sizzled past its head. A second or two later the thug poked its head around the doorway again, revealing it to be a Rodian. He didn't have time to pull back as another bolt from Mahr'la's blaster struck him right between his bulbous eyes, sending him to the floor in a crumpled heap.

I reached my left hand to my back pouch and grabbed a sonic screamer. With my right hand, I kept the rifle steady and pointed towards the door. I fired off a quick burst sending a Quarren and another Rodian back behind the wall for cover. I got out from behind my cover and tossed the screamer in the hallway, shouted a warning to Mahr'la over the TAC net and turned the audio inputs down in my helmet. Even with the inputs turned down I could still hear the sonic blast as the screamer detonated, leaving a slight ringing in my ears.

I rushed into the hallway and turned to my left. I fired three bursts taking out the Quarren and a twi'lek female. Mahr'la exited soon after me, turned to the right and slotted the Rodian. I sighted the third individual to the left of the door and slowly lowered my rifle. The third individual had been a Bith whose head exploded from the pressure created by the sound wave when the sonic screamer detonated, leaving a headless corpse on the floor with bits of skull, brains, and blood dripping down the ceiling and walls.

Mahr'la came up behind me and upon seeing the mess I had created, said, "Yeeech. So that's what happens to a Bith's head when it gets hit by a sonic screamer." She placed a hand on my shoulder. Then turned and went back into the room.

I spun around. "What the shab are you doing?"

"I'm getting the cleaning kit." She replied.

I felt myself getting angry and frustrated. "Just leave it!" I exclaimed. "I already told you I have three spare kits on my ship. We have to go now!"

A few seconds later, she exited the room with my duffle bag slung over her shoulder. She quickly unslung it and handed it to me. "I also thought you might want this. I put your rifle case inside it. You're welcome by the way."

I took the bag, slung it across my back, and grunted out a "Thank you." I raised my rifle and turned back down the hallway. "Can we get going now?"

Mahr'la patted my back. "Lead the way." She said in a cheery voice that started to annoy me. She turned her back to me and walked backward, keeping her eyes on the door at the opposite end of the hallway. As we reached the door she let out a sigh and stated, "I hope we don't run into too many more of these lowlifes."

Her statement proved prophetic as I opened the door and ran into two human male thus coming up the stairs with their blasters drawn. The lead man had just reached the top of the stairs and was apparently as startled to see me, as I was to see him. I, however, recovered quicker and brought the butt of my rifle up and landed a blow on the man's chin, shattering his jawbone. The hit knocked the man off balance, causing him to fall into his compatriot a few steps behind him. Both men tumbled down the stairs, their necks snapping in the process, ending up in a tangled heap on the landing below.

I turned around when I heard Mahr'la firing behind me. At the other end of the hallway, a Weequay and another human lay sprawled out on the floor with smoking holes in their chests. She faced me and tilted her head when I didn't say anything. "What?" she asked.

"Any other 'statements' you want to make before we head out again?" I sarcastically inquired.

She sighed, "No. I'm sorry ok. Next time I'll keep my mouth shut."

"Thank the Manda," I muttered under my breath.

"What was that?" She asked to my surprise.

It was then I realized that the channel I opened with Mahr'la was still on. _Osik, _I thought to myself. "Uh, nothing. Let's just get going." I ignored her response as we went down the stairs and exited the hotel out of a side door facing the street. The streets were empty except for stray pieces of trash that blew back and forth in the night breeze. The sky had turned pitch black and only the soft orange glow from the street lamps broke through the gloom. I looked to my right and saw the spaceport a block and a half away. I motioned for Mahr'la to follow me, "This way."

Mahr'la stopped me with a hand on my shoulder. "Wait." She ordered.

I spun around, "What? We have a clear shot to the spaceport. Let's go!"

Mahr'la gestured outward with her left hand. "Look around! Don't you find it slightly odd that the streets are deserted?"

"If we were on Coruscant or even Corellia, I might agree with you," I replied. "But on a back water planet like this? No, I don't find it even slightly odd that the streets are deserted at night."

"Well, you better find it odd." Mahr'la shot back. "Remember, I have been on this heap of a planet for far longer than you have and there's always traffic, doesn't matter what time of day."

"Ok, so it's odd," I answered. "But the fact of the matter is that we still have to make it to my ship which is at the spaceport." I turned around again and raised my rifle as I headed out. "We'll just have to keep a sharp look out for trouble."

My movement was cut short as a blaster bolt flashed from left to right, past my face. I swung my weapon to the left and saw an armored figure in the mouth of an alleyway across the street. I fired a burst to get the thug to duck down the alley, which he did. "Move it up!" I ordered to Mahr'la. We ran across the street, firing at the alley as we went. Once we reached the wall we headed toward the alley with me on point while Mahr'la watched our rear. I traded a couple of shots with the thug as we closed in on the alley. I switched my HUD to infrared and found that the thug was pressed up against the wall with two of his friends. I grabbed a thermal detonator from a pouch on my back and lobbed it into the alley. I quickly switched my HUD back to normal view as the blast from the thermal det was likely to blind me if I didn't. The thug closest to the mouth of the alley made it two steps further out of the ally than his friends did before the detonator exploded, incinerating his friends and sending the thug flying through the air, the blast taking his legs with it and depositing his body halfway across the street.

Glanced at the body as we passed it and noticed a patch on the thug's shoulder of a black skull with what looked like blood dripping from the corners of the skull's mouth. I motioned to Mahr'la. "Hey, take a look at the patch on that guy's shoulder. Look familiar to you?"

Mahr'la shook her head, "I can honestly say that I've never seen that patch before. Maybe it's some new pirate outfit?"

I gritted my teeth, "Well, whoever they are, they're between us and my ship, so that makes them dead men."

We turned right at the corner and headed down the street, staying as close to the buildings as we could, the spaceport looming ahead. As far as spaceports go, this one was moderately sized. The good thing, and the problem, with spaceports on small planets like the one we were on, is that they are pretty much self-regulating. That was a good thing if you wanted to keep a low profile and stay away from the authorities. The problem with it was that you were in charge of your own ship security. Also, the few safety officials that did patrol the port were nowhere near enough to control all the unsavory characters that tended to frequent these planets. For us, that meant we had a running firefight to get to my ship once we got into the spaceport.

We wound our way through the docking bays, taking out thugs as we went. I was actually impressed by Mahr'la and the way she handled her blaster pistol. Her shots always had tight groupings and always found their mark. I never once had to worry about who was behind me, as she was able to take care of everything that was thrown at her.

She impressed me again when we got to the bay where my ship was berthed. The bay was situated at a cross section of the hallways in the spaceport. We approached from the left side and stopped at the corner. I peered around the corner and saw two human men guarding the bay door.

I pulled my head back and sighed, "Ok. There are two men guarding the door. Do you want to take one, and I'll take the other?"

Mahr'la shook her head. "No, I have a better idea. Let's have some fun with these guys." To my surprise, she holstered her gun, popped the seal on her helmet, lifted it off of her head, and handed it to me. She quickly ran her fingers through her dark thick hair. "Stay here." She said and sauntered off.

"What the shab are you doing?" I asked with alarm. "This is no time for games!"

Mahr'la ignored me as she rounded the corner and headed straight towards the guards. She singled out the guard to the right of the door and began to flirt with him. Although I couldn't hear what was being said, if the look the guard was giving her was any indication, whatever she was doing was working. She backed the man up until his back hit the door jam. She reached up with her right hand and began to playfully trace her fingers around his jaw line.

The other guard, envious of the attention his friend was getting, started to inch up behind Mahr'la. When he was about two feet away from her, she pulled her blaster out of the holster and shot the man in front of her at point blank range. At the same time, her right leg flashed out, her foot catching the man in his stomach, doubling him over in pain. Mahr'la then spun around, put the blaster to the back of the man's head, and fired, splattering his face all over the floor.

_Kandosii!_ I thought to myself. I stepped away from the wall and made my way to the docking bay door, check the halls for any pursuit. I reached the door and found Mahr'la standing there with a smug smile on her face.

"So I guess you think that was pretty clever?" I scolded as I tossed her helmet to her.

Mahr'la replaced her helmet and shrugged, "What, can't a girl have a little fun?"

"You could've been killed."

She scoffed. "The day I can't take down two drunken pirates is the day I'm hanging up my gun. Besides, I knew you'd get my back if I needed it."

"And how did you figure that?" I countered.

She out posted her hands on her hips, "Because, despite the gruff, tough guy, façade, your actions so far lead me to believe that you are an honorable man. You gave me your word to help me, and you wouldn't have let anything happen to me until your word is fulfilled."

I opened my mouth to give her some kind of retort when a score of blaster shots whizzed past our heads. Without another word I opened the bay door and made straight for my ship. I double blinked at the ship icon on my HUD. I then opened the boarding hatch and started the engines. I turned back to see Mahr'la firing back down the hallway.

I opened up the tactical frequency. "Mahr'la! Get your shebs on board. We gotta go!"

Without waiting I boarded the blast boast, made my way to the cockpit and settled into the pilot's chair. I buckled myself in and started turning on the rest of the ship's systems, as well as the astromech intelligence I had installed for astrogation and co-piloting duties. A couple of seconds later I heard the hatch seal and Mahr'la plopped down behind me in the co-pilot's chair and strapped herself in.

I fed power into the repulsor lift coils, lifting the craft off the ground. I raised the ship out of the docking bay, retracted the landing gear, angled the ship toward the night sky and hit the thrusters. The ship surged forward and within minutes we were punching through the atmosphere and on to outer space.

Suddenly the threat indicator started flashing and beeping on my console. I checked the radar and saw four Z–95 Headhunter fighters closing in.

"Osik!" I shouted. Jerked my thumb to the back of the crew cabin, "Mahr'la go to the back and get on the gun controls. I have both ventral and dorsal cannons linked together so you can cover the whole ship."

Mahr'la unbuckled herself and stood up. "We got company?"

I rolled my eyes, "No, I thought the good people of the planet below would like a light show. Yes, we've got company! Four Z-95's are closing in fast."

"What about astrogation?" Mahr'la inquired. "How are you going to maneuver the ship AND plot us a course out of here?"

"Don't worry about me," I answered. "I have an R-7 droid intelligence installed in the ships system to take care of astrogation. Now GET ON THOSE GUNS!"

"Yessir captain tightwad!" Mahr'la retorted and went to the gun controls.

I suppressed a growl and kept my focus on the incoming fighters. I waited until they were a klick and a half away before I acted. I inverted the ship then sent it into a spinning "dive". I pulled out of the dive after three seconds and started the ship juking and weaving.

"You know, it would be a lot easier to hit these guys if you weren't throwing the ship and my stomach around like a drunken Weequay!" Mahr'la called out from behind me.

I snorted a laugh, "Yeah well, me throwing this ship around is keeping us alive so deal with it!" As I said that I pulled back on the steering yoke and sent the ship on a weaving climb. The four fighters hung close, following my maneuvers. _These guys aren't just a bunch of nerf herders, that's for sure!_ My thought was confirmed as laser light lit up my rear shields, bleeding them away.

Just then the lead Z-95's canopy exploded as Mahr'la's shots finally hit home. The loss of the lead fighter apparently shook up the other pilots as they broke off and attempted to gain a better position, one breaking to port, and the other two to starboard

"Took you long enough!" I shouted into the TAC net.

"Hey, with your flying it's a wonder I hit anything at all." Mahr'la smugly replied. "You should just be lucky that I'm such an excellent shot."

I was tempted to reply but decided to concentrate on flying and getting us out of there. I reached over with my right hand and flipped a switch on my console. "Ship!" I called to the ship's droid intelligence. I received an affirmative beep in reply. "Plot us a course out of here."

I checked to my left and right and saw my attackers on both sides, angling in on me, trying to catch me in the crossfire. Behind me, Mahr'la continued to pour fire on either side of us, trying to discourage the enemy pilots, but to no avail.

Ship tweeted a response.

"I don't know! How about Bastion?" I suggested.

He chirped again.

"You let me worry about that!" I yelled back. "Just plot the course and I'll get us on it!"

I decided that I didn't feel like going along with the game these guys were playing. So I turned the ship to starboard and attempted to loop around and get behind the two fighters on that side. The two fighters continued their arc while the one that was on my port side tried to angle in behind me.

"Keep that fighter coming up behind us busy Mahr'la!" I ordered.

"Copy that." She replied.

I brought up the wing mounted ion cannons as I twisted the ship to starboard and pulled back on the yoke, tightening my loop. I synched up my helmet to the ship's targeting data. A green reticule appeared in my HUD and I immediately centered on the trailing Z-95. I pulled back even harder on the yoke trying to gain a good lead on my target. The targeting computer gained a firing lock that started the reticule flashing. I squeezed the triggers on the steering yoke and sent out a barrage of blue lightning. The first pair of ion bolts struck the Z-95's rear shields, collapsing them, while the second pair hit the engines, shutting them down.

"That's two!" I proclaimed.

The lead fighter, having lost his wingman, sent his ship into a sharp dive twisting and juking as he went.

"The headhunter on our tail has broken off!" Mahr'la reported.

"He's probably going to regroup with his buddy and attempt another pass," I replied. "Let's get out of here while we can. Hold on!"

I brought up the coordinates that Ship had calculated and quickly oriented us in that direction.

Suddenly my threat indicator started beeping again.

"Um, you might want to hurry up with the getting us out of here!" Mahr'la called out.

"We're almost out of the planet's gravity well," I replied coolly. "Just give me a few more seconds."

The threat indicator then began blaring an alarm.

"Two missiles away and incoming!" Mahr'la shouted.

I fed all remaining power into the engines and pushed the throttle as far forward as I could. The ship jerked as the engines flared with the boost of energy they received. I checked my monitor and tracked the distance on the missiles. _2 klicks and closing fast! _I thought to myself then checked the distance to the edge of the gravity well. _1 and a half klicks! This is going to be close._

"Mahr'la, get out of that turret and strap in!" I ordered. "All power has been redirected to the engines, you couldn't fire even if you wanted to."

I felt a bump in my back as Mahr'la jammed herself into the copilot's chair, her knees hitting the back of my seat. I checked the monitor again. We were now three-quarters of a klick away from being able to jump to hyperspace, while the missiles had closed to one klick. My heart raced as I watched both distances shrink. _Come on don't let me down!_ I thought to the ship.

When the missiles were 100 meters away Ship set off an alarm signaling that we were clear of the gravity well. I closed my eyes and threw the switch on the hyperdrive. I braced myself for the impact of the missiles. The first missile would take out my engines while the second would plow straight through the rest of the ship and explode in the cockpit. My luck had finally run out. I said a brief prayer and prepared myself to enter the manda.

**Chapter 4**

From behind my closed eyelids, I could see a bright light in front of me. _I wonder if I'll see my ancestors here_ I mused. I was almost afraid to open my eyes and face what the manda had in store for me. Suddenly from above, I heard a mechanical chirping that sounded an awful lot like my ship's droid intelligence. _Wait droids don't go to the manda!_ I opened my left eye slowly, then my right and was greeted with the swirling vortex of hyperspace. I quickly checked my monitors and, finding no pursuit, let out a huge sigh of relief.

I removed my helmet and turned my head to the seat behind me. "You ok back there?" I asked. I smiled as I found Mahr'la with her helmet off as well, her eyes closed the same as mine had been, her fingers digging into the sides of her seat.

She slowly opened her eyes. "Did we make it?"

"Yes, we're alive, well, and on course," I replied.

Now she let out a sigh. "Not a bad piloting job Marek."

"Thanks," I replied. "You didn't do too bad yourself."

Mahr'la mockingly buffed her nails on the chest of her armor. "What can I say? It's a gift." Her expression then turned a little more serious. "You said we were 'on course'. Where are we headed?"

I shrugged, "Bastion."

"Imperial Space?!" She shouted. "Why for Mandalore's sake would you want to go there?"

"Take it easy!" I retorted. I held up my right hand and counted off the reasons on my fingers. "First, this is one of the closest systems that isn't near Hutt space, and I prefer to avoid the Hutts whenever I can. Second, Imperial bounties almost always pay more, and third and most importantly, I have a friend there that owns a docking and repair facility. He also deals with ship sales so he might be able to get you a new ship if that's what you want. That's why we're headed there!"

Mahr'la held up her hands in surrender. "Ok, ok, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to yell. It's just that I haven't exactly had what you would call great experiences in Imperial Space."

I scoffed, "What, did you have an ex-boyfriend who was an Imp?"

Mahr'la turned her head away. "I don't want to talk about it." She stated deadpan, effectively killing the conversation.

"Ok, I'll drop it." I apologized. I turned around and stared out the front view port. I was a little taken aback by how abruptly Mahr'la cut off the conversation when the topic turned to her past loves. The topic was a sore one for me as well, so I could understand being a little hesitant to discuss the issue. It did make me wonder, though, as to whether or not I would ever learn the whole story. _Time will tell I guess._

Several awkward minutes passed before either I spoke up again. "So, uh, where did you grow up?"

That brought a chuckle out of Mahr'la, "You are just one inquisitive Mando'ad aren't you?" She paused briefly then added, "You know, you are not like most other Mando men that I've met."

That remark made me turn around and face her again. I raised both of my eyebrows since for some reason to this day I can't raise just one. "What do you mean I'm 'not like most other Mando men'?"

Mahr'la shrugged. "Most of the mando men I have met or dated have been the overly macho type who wants to maintain this air of mysteriousness about them. But you, you just have such an open expression. It's very disarming, that's all."

"Oh. Ok." I replied. I began to turn around but stopped when I realized she hadn't answered my question. So I just continued to look at her with an expectant look on my face.

Mahr'la was looking out the front viewport for almost a minute before she realized I was still looking at her. She finally looked bad at me and frowned. "What?" She asked.

I raised my eyebrows, "Well are you going to answer my question about where you grew up?"

She crossed her arms over her chest. "You're very persistent you know that?"

"And you're dodging my question." I retorted.

She shot me an incredulous look. "Why do you even care about where I grew up?"

"Because," I replied, "assuming we're going to be working together, I'd like to get to know the person I'm going to be working with."

"But that's not the only reason."

My eyes darted from left to right and I felt like a rodent caught in a trap. "What do you mean?"

Mahr'la's expression softened. "I can see it in your eyes. There's another reason why you want to know about me."

My heart started pounding and I began to fidget with the back of my seat. "Well, the other reason is that I find you, uh, interesting."

Mahr'la raised her eyebrows. "Interesting?"

I let out an exasperated sigh. "I'm attracted to you ok!"

She smirked, "I thought as much. I just wanted to hear you say it." Her shoulders dropped like the locks of a secured vault. "There's not much to tell about me that I didn't say in the hotel" she continued "but I'll start by telling you about my family, although I apologize in advance if I end up boring the osik out of you."

Over the next couple of hours, I actually learned quite a bit about Mahr'la, and I told her a lot about myself. Mahr'la was the oldest of five children and was raised on the west side of Keldabe, which I found interesting since, seeing as I had grown up on the southern outskirts of that same city, and the fact that Keldabe wasn't by any means an especially large city, I would have thought that our respective paths would have crossed before now. We also found out that we shared a lot of the same values and our opinions about the galaxy at large were pretty much the same as well.

I found it very easy to open up to Mahr'la, which I found both comforting and disconcerting at the same time. While it was nice to have someone to confide in, opening up too soon in a relationship had burned me before, and I was becoming fearful that I was repeating past mistakes. Still, I found it very easy to relax and just be myself around her, which is something I hadn't been able to do for a long time.

The one area we didn't really delve into was our past relationships, which was fine with me seeing as I was still just shy of four months out of my last disaster and I really didn't feel like rehashing that speeder wreck anytime soon.

Our conversation was cut short when the nav computer started beeping. I turned around and checked the monitor. "Looks like we're coming up on Bastion." I relayed. I moved my right hand over to the hyperdrive controls. "Cutting in the sub light engines in 3, 2, 1, mark." I pulled back on the hyperdrive control and the swirling tunnel of light that was hyperspace reverted back to the regular pinpoints of light that were the stars. In the foreground, loomed the planet Bastion.

So I wasn't really surprised when my comm. started to beep and Mahr'la informed me of an incoming customs craft. "Tartan patrol craft approaching our starboard side."

"Copy that," I replied. I then turned my attention to the comm.

I flipped a switch and was greeted by the Imperial Air Traffic Control officer. "Attention incoming Blastboat." Said the officer in a thick Coruscanti accent. "We have you on our radar on approach to Bastion. Please identify yourself."

I took a deep breath and replied in my most even business-like voice I could muster. "This is Blastboat Vulen's Pride, Bastion ATC. Requesting permission to land for purposes of refuel and repair."

"Be advised Vulen's Pride, we are under a strict military alert. You are to power down your engines and allow our customs craft to scan your ship. Any sudden movements or attempts to approach the planet without authorization will be met with deadly force. Is that clear?"

I suppressed a scoff, but couldn't stop myself from smiling. The control officer was obviously trying his best to sound intimidating, however, I have never found myself to be intimidated by what I see as the feminine nature of a Coruscanti accent. "Crystal clear ATC." I shut down the engines and even powered down my shields. "Engines and shields are shut down, awaiting scan."

My comm. beeped again and I switched to the channel that the patrol craft was using. "Vulen's Pride, this is custom's ship T-897. Please stand by while we commence our scan of your ship."

After a few minutes the ship was scanned and cleared and we were headed to the planet. Once in the atmosphere, I sent a comm. message to my contact, an old friend named Jett Reska. He was a fellow mando'ad and we had spent the majority of our teenage years together. Once he turned 18 years old, he left Mandalore, came out here to Bastion, started a repair and refueling station, and had been here ever since.

Once we reached the docking bay coordinates that Jett had given me, I set the ship down gently and shut everything down. I double checked my blaster pistol, then went over to my duffle bag, pulled my assault rifle out and slung it across my back.

Mahr'la regarded me carefully. "You're taking your rifle with you? I thought this Jett was your friend?"

I nodded as I tucked my helmet under my arm. "He's my best friend. And I'm taking my rifle with me, because you still don't know what you're going to run into out there, and I'd rather be safe than sorry." I walked over to the back of the ship and lowered the loading ladder. Mahr'la moved to leave first, but I put my hand out to stop her. "Let me go first."

Mahr'la gave me a scornful look. "Why?"

"Because," I explained, "If Jett sees someone he doesn't know come out of MY ship. He is likely to shoot you first and ask questions later. Therefore, I am going first."

Mahr'la held her hands up in a placating gesture and backed away. I descended the ladder, jumping down the last 2 rungs. I took a quick look around the empty hangar, finding it a little odd that Jett wasn't here to greet me. I was about to use my comlink to find out where he was, when the door leading out of the hangar opened, admitting a mando'ad who was two heads taller than me, in yellow and gray armor. The blonde warrior smiled as he approached.

"Su'cuy ner vod!" He exclaimed.

I walked out to meet him, once we met we clasped forearms and embraced in a back slapping hug. "Nice to see you too ner vod," I responded.

"So, what brings you back out this way?" He inquired.

I shrugged, "Three things. First I need fuel for my ship, secondly I wanted to look at your ship inventory, and lastly, I need a bit of information."

Jett gave me a confused look. "Why do you want to see what I have for sale? Something wrong with your ship?"

I shook my head. "It's not for me." I jerked my head back towards my ship indicating Mahr'la who had just finished descending the ladder. "It's for her."

"Well, well Mar'ika, it's about time." Jett teased. "I just never picked you for the 'damsel in distress' type."

"I wasn't a 'damsel in distress," Mahr'la said sternly as she approached us. "I simply accepted a ride from Marek as recompense for him taking a bounty out from under me."

Jett held up his right hand. "Throttle back there lady, I meant no disrespect. And you're lucky it was Marek who took that bounty from you. I highly doubt any other merc within 2,000 parsecs of here wouldn't have shot you the first chance they got." Jett didn't give Mahr'la a chance to respond and turned back to me. "So what is this information you need?"

I pulled out my datapad and turned it on. "Actually that concerns Mahr'la as well. When I ran into her she was being chased by a group of unscrupulous characters, and since I was with her at the time they started after me as well." I brought up the image of the shoulder patch of one of the men I'd killed and handed the pad to Jett. "Do you have any idea who this patch belongs to?"

Jett frowned, as he looked the image over. "It looks familiar, but I need to double check." He moved towards the door and beckoned us to follow him. "Come with me to my office and we'll see if we can figure this out."

It was a short walk down the hall to Jett's office. We walked into a room that was no bigger than a supply closet, with a desk at one end that was almost as wide as the room was. Across from the desk sat a pair of folding chairs. Jett motioned for us to sit in them and we did so, bumping elbows in the process.

Jett uploaded the image into the terminal on his desk and accessed the holo-net. "Let me see if the Imperial database has anything on them." After a brief moment, he snapped his fingers. "I got it! I knew I had seen this before on a supply run in Hutt space but I couldn't place the name."

"So who are they?" I inquired.

"These," he explained, "are the Black Skull Pirates. I know, not a very original name. They are the new power players in that sector of space."

"But where did they come from?" Mahr'la asked.

Jett leaned back in his chair, resting his hands on his stomach as he read the information on the screen in front of him. "They were always there. They actually started on Nar Shaddaa and mostly kept to that system. Though apparently, after the New Republic ran off a rogue Imperial element, the Black Skulls moved in to fill the void. They are trying to make a name for themselves, so I would watch my back if I were you."

I scoffed, "Thanks for the warning. Now about your ship inventory…"

Jett shook his head. "Sorry ner vod, but I can't help you there."

"What?" I asked with a confused look. "Why not?"

Jett sat forward in his chair. "Well, I'm sure you noticed the heightened state of security here on incoming ships?"

I nodded. "Yeah, that surprised me. I've never had to get my ship scanned prior to entering the atmosphere before."

"Yeah, it's really starting to cut into my business too," Jett added. "Anyway, scuttlebutt says that's the Imps are getting reports from the Chiss of a pending invasion. Word has already spread to the on planet population and the new security measures were put in place to reassure people that the Empire was on top of things."

"So how does that affect your ability to sell me a ship?" Mahr'la asked.

Jett opened his hands. "Well as part of the new security measures, for whatever reason, all ship sales must be made through government intermediaries. And since almost all my clients are people the Empire thinks of as 'undesirable', my ship sales have dropped to almost nothing. So I sold off my inventory to the Imps, stripped down to the basic models of course, and now I only deal with refueling, repairs, and minor upgrades."

I sighed and looked over to Mahr'la, "So, what do you want to do?"

Mahr'la looked back at me, "Well I guess you're stuck with me for a while then." She then refocused on Jett. "Do you have any leads on any local bounties we can cash in on while we're refueling?"

Jett smiled. "Actually I do have one. I was going to go pick him up when I got the message you were coming in." He brought up the file on his terminal screen and turned it around so we could see it. "Larkus Gervoraan. He was an accountant for a casino owned by someone from the Corporate Sector. Apparently, he siphoned off a few million in profits from the casino and tried to make a run for it. But with the security being what it is nowadays, he couldn't find passage off this rock. So he's gone native." He linked up my datapad to his terminal and dumped all the relevant information on Larkus to the pad and handed it back to me when he was done."

I took the pad and then shot Jett a dubious look. "I'm not so sure about this."

"Why's that ner vod?" Jett responded.

"Well for one thing," I countered, "I try not to take bounties when I know someone else has a claim on them. Secondly, the last time I tried to cash in on a quick bounty while refueling, I ended up getting more than I bargained for."

Mahr'la gave me a look of disgust and smacked me in the arm. "That bounty led you to me, you cheeky dikut."

I shot her a hurt look. "Hey! I didn't say it was all bad."

Jett cleared his throat. "Um, do you want me to give you two love birds some privacy…"

"We're not 'love birds'!" Mahr'la and I said at the same time, then look at each other in surprise.

Jett almost doubled over in laughter. "Oh ok, you guys. You've convinced me!" He then put on a more serious face. "But on more important matters, Marek, I told you to take the bounty, so don't go feeling like you're tarnishing your honor by taking it. Also, if you want to catch this guy, you have to get moving."

"Why is that?" I inquired.

"Well," Jett explained, "Larkus put out a contract for protection, but the dikut is such a businessman he wants to interview potential takers. I set up a meeting at a nearby cantina that starts in about 20 minutes. He'll be there waiting for you."

I glanced down at Larkus' file again and let out a sigh. I stood up and looked over to Mahr'la. "Well, we better get going then."

**Chapter 5**

Over the next couple of months, Mahr'la and I worked together collecting bounties. Things were looking up all over. With the money I pulled in from my share of the bounties we took, I was able to upgrade parts of my armor, with my favorite being the multi-tube dart launcher that I had Jett install on my right bracer. With this baby, I could take down a target before he got too far away, meaning that I didn't have to use my tracker beacons or spend time on lengthy foot pursuits. We also gained a bit of a reputation in the underworld of Bastion. We were known to be relentless in the pursuit of our bounties, a fact that caused several marks to surrender to us before we even started our hunt.

Another development was that the relationship between Mahr'la and I deepened into something more than just a professional relationship. We worked extremely well together, so much so that we were able to read and anticipate each other's movements to the point that we knew how the other would react in almost any situation. On top of that, I found that I had someone I could implicitly trust. We would talk for hours on end about everything from our favorite weapon system, to the follies of past relationships. For me, I mostly talked about my most recent ex and horrible she, and by extension our relationship, was. And she finally confided in me that he last ex as an Imperial officer who was long on charm, but short on temper. The fact that we both had lot experience dating terrible people made us kindred spirits who could revel, and even laugh, at the similar path our lives took even though we had only met recently. OH! Speaking of laughing! She thought I was funny! She readily laughed at my jokes, which surprised me because hardly anyone laughs at my jokes, and we just had fun together, which was something I hadn't experienced in a relationship for a long time.

We had formed a very strong bond, a bond that would be tested one rainy night. We were chasing down a bounty on a local bureaucrat named Eximus Farlin who was apparently caught feeding information to a New Republic spy. We had spent over a month collecting data, tracking him down, and mapping out his movements. The man had a pretty regular schedule which boded well for us. Every morning he would exit his apartment at about 0700 hours local time and walk four blocks to a tapcaf. From there he would catch a taxi to his office and stay there until 1900 hours, and then took another taxi straight home. Mahr'la suggested we nab him on his walk to the tapcaf and I agreed, seeing as it was the only time where he was out in the open for any extended length of time. This particular day, however, Eximus skipped the tapcaf and took a hover cab straight to his office. We were a little worried about the change in his routine but decided to stick with him and wait for a better opportunity to nab him.

That opportunity came that evening when, instead of taking a cab home, he began walking. Mahr'la and I exited the speeder we were in and began to tail him from the opposite side of the street. Then, without warning, he took off running and took a sharp turn down an alleyway.

Mahr'la cursed as we both sprinted across the street in pursuit, dodging speeders and swoop bikes as we went.

"How did the chakaar see us?" Mahr'la asked as we reached the opposite side of the street. "He didn't even turn around."

"He has to have someone helping him," I replied. "We need to be cautious."

We entered the alley that our quarry had run into just in time to see him rounding a corner at the far end. We chased after him, our feet splashing in the myriad of puddles that had formed in the alley due to the rain. Rounding the corner, we found that the alley opened up into a group of loading docks. The docking area itself was about a quarter of a kilometer long and out 20 meters wide, allowing plenty of room for supply trucks to back in and out without bashing into one another. Luckily due to the time of day, the docks were only sparsely populated with hover trucks and there were no dock workers to be found.

Mahr'la pointed toward the far end of the docks. "There he is."

I looked towards the end of the docking area and saw our target running towards the street that lay beyond. I raised my assault rifle and switched the firing mode to stun. "I got him," I said as I sighted Eximus and pulled the trigger. The stun bolt hit Eximus in the back and sent him tumbling forward. He came to rest three meters from the edge of the docks.

I turned to Mahr'la, "Keep an eye out while I go and secure our "friend" here.

Mahr'la nodded and drew her pistol as I carefully made my way forward. As I approached Eximus' body I fired another stun bolt into him, just to make sure he was out. I then slung my rifle over my shoulder and reach to the small of my back to pull out my hand and feet binders. I squatted down and secured his hands behind his back, followed by his feet.

"I think we're clear," Mahr'la said as she came up next to me. She looked down at our bounty and toed his leg with her boot as if to make sure he was out. "Is it just me, or was this way too easy?

I stood and shrugged, "I dunno, but let's not jinx ourselves here." I replied. I quickly looked around and didn't see anyone, so I moved around the Eximus' head and squatted back down. It was then that I noticed something in his right ear. I reached in with my index finger and thumb and pulled out a small comlink bud. I held it up to Mahr'la. "I found this in his ear. He most definitely has help." I nodded towards his feet, "Grab his legs so we can get him out of here before his 'help' arrives."

Mahr'la holstered her pistol and started to bend over.

Suddenly we heard a voice come from the alley. "I cannot allow you to take this man in."

I immediately jumped up and unslung my rifle, while Mahr'la spun and drew her pistol, sinking to one knee. At the end of the alley, I spotted a figure in a hooded cloak. _Not a good sign_. I cautiously lowered my rifle and stepped around to Eximus' feet. I turned up the volume on my external speakers. "This is bounty hunter business stranger. Leave now if you know what's good for you."

The figure remained stock still and simply repeated, "I cannot allow you to take this man in."

"Who does this guy think he is?" I asked.

Mahr'la slowly stood up. "Take a look at his belt, Marek."

_Ok._ I zoomed in on the figure's belt and saw a metallic cylinder one in a half inches in diameter and my brain immediately identified it as a lightsaber. "Jetii" I grumbled, "Great, just what we needed."

I slowly started to walk towards the jedi, my heart pounding with a mixture of joy and dread. I had never faced a Jedi in combat before and had always wanted to test my skill against these so-called "fabled warriors." But first I needed to assess my opponent. The tone of the Jedi's voice told me I was dealing with a young human, possibly in his late teens or early twenties. Normally this would mean that he would be cocky and easily goaded, however, jedi were a different breed so I decided to try a different tactic.

"Sorry, jetii." I said as I came to a stop 100 meters from my hooded adversary. "This man is a wanted criminal, and my next meal ticket, so I'm afraid I can't comply with your request."

The jedi waved his hand through the air, "You WILL let this man go."

A sudden urge to comply came over me and I would have done so except that from somewhere in my mind, something screamed at me that the idea to release my prisoner was not my own. _Shabla jetii mid trick._ Now I was mad. Confronting someone was one thing, but using a mind trick like that was just sleazy, underhanded and dishonorable.

"Why don't you try your tricks on someone else mirsheb." I growled.

The jedi cocked his head to the side. "Do you have any idea of what they'll do to him if you take him in?"

"Do you know how little I care?" I spat back. "You know that's the problem with you shabla jetii. You're always trying to save people from their own stupidity. Maybe if you let people pay for their own mistakes, there'd be a lot fewer problems in the galaxy, but then again without problems to solve, there'd be no need for dikute like you then would there?" I raised my rifle and aimed at the jedi. "Now I am going to tell you one last time. Leave now and I won't have to hurt you."

The jedi pulled his lightsaber from his belt and held it in both hands. He looked like he was about to say something else, but I didn't give him a chance as I let out three long bursts from my assault rifle. The red bolts screamed in towards the jedi, who at the last second, ignited his blade and began deflecting my shots.

Off to my left, Mahr'la raised her blaster pistol and joined her fire with mine. With impossible speed the jedi was able to deflect the majority of our shots, even managing to send a few back at us. Mahr'la ended up diving for cover behind a stack of plasteel crates in front of the docks on our side.

"Nice to see the shooting started." Mahr'la mocked as she exited her cover to fire off a couple more shots. "I was beginning to think you wanted to talk the jetii into submission."

I was about to make some kind of smart remark when the jedi extended his hand toward me, palm facing outward. Having studied the jedi order, I instantly recognized what this jedi was doing and began to move to my right to avoid the force push I knew was coming. Even moving as fast I was, however, the push still clipped my left shoulder and began to spin me. I let momentum take over and did a 360-degree pivot on my right heel.

I came to a stop facing the jedi and was about to start firing again when a second force push slammed into my chest and sent me sprawling backward, knocking my rifle from the grip. I quickly rolled to my stomach and spun around as I came up to my knees. Ahead of me, the jedi started to advance on me, when Mahr'la stepped back out from her cover, firing as fast as she could.

The Jedi turned to face his more immediate threat, giving me the chance I need to make a run for my assault rifle. I was about to turn towards my rifle when the Jedi punched the air in front of him and sent a force push out that hurled Mahr'la into the docks behind her. She hit with such force that she rebounded then stumbled back and ended up sliding down the dock wall to the ground.

It was then I notice the Jedi gathering himself for a jump and in a split second my mind's eye saw the jedi leaping over to Mahr'la and cutting her down in front of me. That thought sparked a raging inferno inside of me. In an instant, I was on my feet racing toward Mahr'la. To my right, the Jedi leaped into the air, his lightsaber held high above his head, preparing for a killing blow. Time slowed to a crawl as I willed my legs to carry me faster. As the jedi descended through the end of his arc I thrust my right arm forward, palm facing away from me. I clenched my fist and ejected my gauntlet Vibro blade. As the jedi landed he swung his blade down, intending to slice Mahr'la open from shoulder to hip.

The blade screamed as it was suddenly halted inches from Mahr'la's neck, by a white hot beskar Vibro blade. The jedi turned his head to me in shock. It was this shock that gave me my opening. I swept my right arm up and out. Mid-way through the arc I disengaged my Vibro blade and grabbed the Jedi's left arm. With all my strength I pulled the jedi toward me, while at the same time, lowering my head. The crown of my helmet met the bridge of the Jedi's nose with a loud pop. The jedi stumbled back and would have fallen to the ground if I had let go of him. I kept my grip firm and pulled the jedi toward me again this time burying my left fist into his stomach with a murderous thump. The ferocity of my attack weakened the jedi enough so that he dropped his lightsaber, the blade extinguishing as it fell from his grip. The weapon bounced and rolled on the ground until it came to a stop several meters away.

I released the jedi from my grip and spun on my left foot and caught the dazed force user with a spinning back kick to the chest that sent him stumbling backward. He tripped over his own feet and landed flat on his back with a thud. I stalked forward; weary of my opponent, preparing to continue the pounding I had started. I saw the jedi lift his head and was impressed with the speed in which he recovered. I also noticed his left-hand rise up and immediately knew what he was trying to do. I turned my head in time to see his lightsaber twitch, then leap off the ground towards its master. I knew I had only one chance to stop him, so with one fluid motion I drew my blaster pistol and fired off three shots from the hip. The first two missed high, but the third one glanced off the lightsaber just enough to knock it off course. The Jedi's weapon sailed over his head and landed behind a stack off duraplast crates on the dock behind him.

The jedi shot me a glare that was a mixture of both surprise and frustration as this fight was clearly not going the way he intended.

I stopped a couple of meters away from him and raised my blaster in a two handed grip. By this time the jedi had managed to get himself to a crouch. I was about to offer my opponent one last chance to just walk away, when he reached out with his right hand, closed it into a fist and pulled. I lurched forward as my blaster was yanked out of my hands and flew over the roof of the building in front of me. He then reached his right hand behind him and the duraplast crates hiding his lightsaber lifted into the air. With a throwing motion, the jedi sent the crates hurtling toward me. I dove to my right and raised my right arm. With my left thumb, I hit the firing mechanism for my bracer mounted darts as fast as I could. All five darts shot out of their housing in rapid succession.

I landed on the ground with a thud and skidded to a halt as the crates flew over me and exploded against the opposing dock wall. The crates also missed Mahr'la, who had gotten up in time and dove out of the way as well. I got up and looked over to the jedi who was lying on his back again, struggling to move. I quickly jogged over to my assault rifle, spun around and trained it on the jedi as I approached him.

When I was about a meter away I noticed three darts stuck in his chest. His breathing was labored, and he struggled as much to just keep his eyes open as he did to try and rise up to his elbows.

"You…don't…know…what…they ...are…going to…do…to…him." The jedi rasped.

I lowered my weapon to a guarded position with my finger just outside the trigger guard. I leaned forward slightly and repeated, "And I don't care either dikut. You could have walked away now and rescued him later. Now, you'll be lucky if you wake up before they torture the osik out of him and execute him." I raised my rifle back up and switched the firing selector to stun. "Nighty night, jetii." I said, and then pulled the trigger; a blue wave hit the jedi and finished the job the sedatives started. The jedi collapsed back down on the cold, wet permacrete.

Mahr'la walked up next to me and tilted her head to the right as she regarded to downed jedi. "Why'd you stun him?" She asked.

"Two reasons," I answered. "First, if we killed him outright, word would've gotten back to Coruscant that we were cold blooded killers. Then every time we encountered a jedi, we'd be forced to kill another jedi. It would be a vicious and annoying cycle. This way, we're saved a headache."

"And the second reason?"

"The first reason actually plays into the second. Jetii have a knack for repaying acts of kindness and are big on learning lessons. We spared his life, so he may save ours one day. Who knows? And if he would've just left us alone, his friend may have lived, so lesson learned."

Mahr'la turned and nodded toward the end of the docks. "Speaking of his friend, look who's literally trying to slither away."

I turned and looked to find Eximus, lying on his side, trying to inch his way out of the docking area bringing his knees up to his chest and using his feet to push himself further along like some mutated worm. I smiled and jogged up to my mark and planted my foot squarely on his back, turning back to his stomach and pinning him to the ground.

"Not so fast grub." I chided. "You've still got a date with the detention center."

Eximus turned his head to the side and shouted, "You've killed my brother you bastards!"

I looked at Mahr'la, "Well that explains why he had a Jetii protecting him." I said over our private channel. I then switched on my external speaker and looked down at my mark. "Well, he shouldn't have gotten in our way."

He started squirming around, trying to get free and shouted, "If you think I'm going to go quietly, you've got another thing…" He was cut off by a stun round that made him go completely limp.

I looked up and saw Mahr'la holstering her blaster. "Geez shut the shab up already." She said with a sigh.

"You do realize we have to carry him all the way back to our speeder," I informed Mahr'la.

She shrugged, "Better to drag dead weight than to listen to that nerf herder carry on like that." She reached down and grabbed his ankle binders and looked up at me. "Are you going to help me here or what?"

Without a word, I slung my rifle back over my shoulder, came around to Eximus' head, bent down, grabbed him by his armpits, and lifted. Still running high on adrenaline, it was pretty easy to carry him back to our speeder. It wasn't until we got to the speeder that I realized that it had stopped raining. Within the next 25 minutes, we had taken in our quarry and collected our bounty.

We had just exited the detention center and turned left to go to our speeder when Mahr'la put her hand on my right shoulder and stopped me.

"Hey, take your bucket off."

I turned around and tilted my head to the side as I regarded her carefully. "Why?"

"Just do it will ya?"

Shrugging, I popped the neck seal on my helmet. The helmet's systems went into sleep mode and my world darkened. I lifted my helmet off of my head and found myself being slammed into the side of the bounty office. I would have protested, but an instant later Mahr'la's mouth covered my own. A jolt ran through me like I had just taken a stim pack and I reached out and pulled Mahr'la in closer.

After what seemed like a blissful eternity, Mahr'la and I parted to catch our breath. I pulled back a little and smiled.

"Hi," I said with a sigh. "What was that for?"

"For saving my life," Mahr'la replied and returned my smile. "You threw yourself in front of a lightsaber and beat the osik out of a Jetii for me. This is just my way of saying 'thanks'."

My cheeks burned as a wave of embarrassment washed over me. "Well, if that's the way you say thanks, I'll gladly step in front a lightsaber any day for you." I smirked, "Of course I may need to increase my fee if this becomes a frequent occurrence."

Mahr'la stepped away from me, grabbed my hand and started leading me to our speeder. A devilish grin spread across her face as she said, "Well then. Why don't we go home and I can put a down payment in on any future services."

**Chapter 6**

Being a Mandalorian, I was and will never be one for mushy details. Long story short, Mahr'la and I had a fantastic evening after our fight with the jedi. Still, I wasn't sure what I felt for Mahr'la. I mean sure I cared a lot about her, enough to throw myself in front of a lightsaber for her, but I wasn't quite sure if I would define what I felt as love. I had thought I was in love with the woman I had dated before I met Mahr'la, but that relationship had turned into such a disaster that I wasn't sure what love really was anymore.

The only thing I knew for sure, was that I really enjoyed being around Mahr'la. With her, I didn't have to pretend to be something I wasn't. Mahr'la looked at me and liked what was already there. And while I might not have been ready at the time to say that I loved her, I knew that with the way our relationship was progressing, that the day I confessed was soon approaching.

That progress abruptly halted, however, one fateful day. We had just finished an assassination job for a local official who wanted his rivals out of the way. Two months and 7 bodies later, we had finished our mission and were paid handsomely for it. So much so in fact that we had actually planned to take our leave of Bastion and head back to Mandalore to visit our families and make introductions.

I had gone to my ship first, to call my parents and let them know I was incoming. I went into the hangar bay where my ship had been birthed and boarded. Once inside I removed my helmet and made my way to the pilot's chair. I set my helmet down on the floor, sat down and powered up the ship's communication grid. I was surprised when it turned on to see a light flashing indicating I had an incoming call. I furrowed my brow in a confused look since I wasn't expecting anyone to contact me. I slowly reached forward and accepted the call. A hologram popped up on my console of the caller and my heart jumped into my throat. Standing in front of me was a miniature version of the last person I ever expected to hear from: my ex. Although you couldn't tell from the holo, she stood 5 centimeters taller than me. Her dirty blonde hair, which she normally wore long, had been cut short so that it fell just above her chin.

"Natassi?"

"Hello, Marek." She replied. "It's been a long time."

I swallowed hard, trying to push down the growing lump in my throat. "Y-yes it has." I stuttered. Just seeing her again made me feel queasy. I knew I should have just disconnected the call and moved on with my life, but for some unexplained reason, I didn't.

"What do you want Natassi?" I inquired.

She shrugged, "Why do I have to want anything?" She responded. "Can't I just call to say 'hello' and see how you're doing?"

I mimicked her shrug, "Normally I'd say 'no', but you always have ulterior motives for everything you do."

"I can't believe," She replied with a pained look, "that after all, we've been through together, after everything I did for you, that you would doubt my motives for talking to you."

I sat there with my right index finger poised to kill the communication line, but for some reason, I'll never understand, I held back. I sighed. "Fine Natassi, I'll talk to you. I'm doing pretty well if you must know. I have steady work and have even found myself a new girl."

A look of disbelief crossed her face. "A new girl? What rock did you find her under?"

"If you must know, I met her on a job I was doing."

"Where is she from?" Natassi asked.

I crossed my arms defiantly across my chest. "She's a fellow Mando'ad if you must know."

Natassi's jaw dropped. "A Mando? Are you seeing a Mando? Come on Marek, I taught you better than to associate with girls like that. They're no good for you."

"Better than some schutta who cheated on me." I retorted.

Her expression turned cross "How many times do I have to tell you, Marek? I didn't sleep with that merchant. I just seriously thought about it."

I rolled my eyes, "That is such a load of osik; I can smell it through the holo-net. You don't break up with someone because you 'thought about cheating on them'. You cheated on me, so I broke up with you."

"You mean that I broke up with you." She replied with a sly grin on her face. She was getting to me and she knew it, so she pressed on. "So, do you still think about me?"

I blanched not sure where the question was even coming from "What?"

"Do you still think about me?"

I thought about it and shrugged. "Yeah, I guess so, from time to time."

Her devious smile widened, "Oh well I haven't thought about you until just before I called." She paused for effect and when I rolled my eyes impatiently, she continued, "So I think we need to get together sometime."

My eyes widened in shock, "WHAT? Why would I agree to meet with you?"

She shrugged again. "Because I'd like to see you and meet this new girl of yours. Besides after everything I've done for you, you owe me. You wouldn't be where you are if it wasn't for me. I'm not going to give up until you say yes."

I sighed in resignation. "Fine, we can meet."

Natassi's eyes lit up in triumph. "Excellent! I'll call you back in a minute with the final details." She blew me a kiss, "Tah tah." Her image winked out as she cut the link.

It was then that I became aware that I wasn't alone on my ship. My heart dropped. I turned around slowly with my eyes closed. When I opened them I saw Mahr'la standing in front of me, her hands at her sides, with a look that contained a mixture of confusion and disgust, but most of all, hurt.

We just stared at each other for what seemed like hours but was only a couple of seconds in a deafening silence. Finally, I couldn't take it anymore so I spoke first. "Mahr'la I…"

"Don't!" She cut me off. "Just…don't. I don't want to hear any lame excuses." She balled her hands into fists and closed her eyes, clearly trying to keep herself from just going off on me. "I just want you to answer one question: 'Why?'"

"Why what?" I asked as if I didn't already know.

"Why would you even talk to her?" Mahr'la asked. "Let alone the fact that you even agreed to meet with her? Especially after all the osik you said she put you through?"

I looked down at the back of the pilot's chair in shame. At that moment, I felt as small a frightened Mandalorian whelp in his first live fire battle. I had no good answer for Mahr'la. All I could do was shake my head and reply, "I don't know."

Mahr'la's expression changed to one of pity, with the pain she was feeling lurking just beneath the surface. "Marek, she is your past, there is absolutely nothing to be gained by associating with her." She took a step back and motioned with her hands as if presenting herself to me for the first time. "I'm your future, and I'm right here. That you would even consider seeing her hurts me more than you know." She bowed her head as if mulling something over. When she raised it back up, she had a look of sad determination on her face. "You know Marek; I think I'm going to go."

My heart sank further. "You mean you're leaving me."

She shook her head. "I'm not leaving you, not in the way you think, yet." She posted her hands on her hips. "Mar'ika, you need to think long and hard about who and what you want and you can't do that while I'm still here. With the money we pulled in on our last job, I have more than enough to barter my way off this rock."

"Where are you going?" I asked.

"I'm still going back to Manda'yaim to see my folks like we originally planned." She replied. "When you figure your osik out and assuming you come to the right decision, come find me. But don't just come after me right away, because I'll know that you aren't sincere." She turned to leave the ship, pausing before going down the ladder. "Goodbye Marek Vulen. I hope you find what you're looking for, and I hope that I'm part of it." With that, she disappeared.

I sat there for over 20 minutes just staring into the abyss. I was completely numb. No that wasn't right; I was mad, really mad. Suddenly my communications board lit up again. I turned around and slammed the 'on' button. Natassi's image floated in front of me again.

"What do YOU want?" I seethed.

Natassi looked at me, confused. "Uh, I was calling back to confirm our date, remember?"

I waved my hand dismissively, "Forget it." I replied. "I'm done with you."

She looked at me with shock "Marek, where is this coming from?"

The anger in me boiled over. "Because you have destroyed everything that was ever good in my life! I lost eight years of my life because of you; I lost touch with almost everything and everyone that made me who I am!" She began to open her mouth to retort, but I didn't give her the chance. "That I was ever attracted to you is a mystery I don't think I'll ever solve." At this point, I realized that I was just venting and probably reacting a bit too harsh, but I was so angry at both myself and her that I couldn't stop, "You are such an attention whore. You care nothing for anyone but yourself. You think I don't know that this call and our 'date' are nothing more than a chance to prove to yourself that I am worse off without you? You are the single worst thing that has ever happened to me. If I never see you again, it will be too soon." I hit the power button again, killing the link before Natassi could respond.

I stood up and grabbed my helmet when Jett came storming aboard my ship, his face red with anger. "Why did Mahr'la just say goodbye to me and I find you here on your ship without her?"

"Because she left me," I responded.

"What did you do?"

"I agreed to see Natassi."

Jett's jaw dropped. He advanced until we were centimeters apart "That shabla schutta?! You agree to see her? What the kark were you thinking di'kut?!"

I shoved Jett away from me. "I'm not going to see her! I cut it off. She called back and I told her off."

"Then why don't you go after Mahr'la?" He asked.

"Because " I replied.

"Because why?" He retorted.

"Because Mahr'la told me not to!" I exclaimed. "She told me that I needed to think about who and what I want."

Jett spread his arms wide. "Well, it sounds to me like you made up your mind when you cut it off with Natassi." He motioned to the exit. "Go get Mahr'la and explain it to her."

I shook my head, "She told me if I went after her right away, she would take it as insincerity. She wouldn't take me back."

Jett wouldn't let it go. "Well, you have to do something!"

His sudden outburst startled me. I tilted my head slightly and shot my friend a confused look. "Why are you pushing so hard on this ner'vod?"

Jett's arm dropped to his side as he seemed to be taken aback by my question. He hesitated for a moment then answered, "Because, I haven't seen you nearly as happy as you are when you are with her. Besides, who better to understand the life of a Mando'ad than another Mando'ad?"

I just shook my head again. "I can't," I replied. "I have to at least respect her wishes or I'll lose her forever."

Jett sighed, resigned. "So what are you going to do then?"

I shrugged. "I dunno, keep working here for a while I guess while I try to sort out all the osik in my head." With that, I pushed passed Jett and exited my ship.

The next two weeks were a study in mediocrity. I worked jobs, but not with as much vigor as I did when I was with Mahr'la. The whole time I tried to figure out, whether or not I really wanted to be with her or just anyone who wasn't Natassi. Just thinking of my ex, made me angry at myself for even talking to her. My anger built up until I would think of the fact that Mahr'la left me, which then plunged me into a depressive state.

I guess it is really no surprise then that I found myself in the hippest club this side of Bastion in full armor, minus my weapons. It was the type of place I hated; a gaudy 5 story monstrosity with loud, obnoxious music, overpriced drinks, and annoying socialites. The first floor contained the main bar and dance floor. Levels 2 through 5 held smaller bars and seating. Each level opened in the middle so people on upper levels could see to the dance floor below.

I had found what I thought was a nice quiet table in a corner on the second level. I bought a bottle of local brandy and a bottle of ale to chase it with. I then sat down at my table, placed my helmet on the table to my left, put my two bottles in front of me, and proceeded to try and kill off as many brain cells as I could. I was only three shots in when my table bounced. I looked up and saw a group of five young men standing in front of me.

A short blonde haired kid in the middle, who was clearly the ring leader, crossed his arms over his chest and shot me a glare. "Hey, you!" He shouted. "Get up, this is our table."

I glanced at all the men in front of me and realized there was something similar about all of them. They were all wearing flight suits typically worn by TIE pilots. Upon closer inspection, I noticed patches on their shoulders that marked them as cadets. _Great, trainees. Just what I need!_

Now, a rational thinking person would look at this group of kids; realize that they were just a group of drunken cadets spoiling for a fight, and walk away. I, however at this particular moment, was thinking anything but rationally, so I decided to bite on the bait they were throwing out. I downed another shot and leaned back in my chair

"Sorry kids, but I'm afraid I was here first," I said with a grin.

The cadets exchanged glances and grins of their own. The leader of the group leaned forward, posting his hands on the table. "Listen here, _Mando_," he sneered, "every day after training, me and my boys here come to this club to unwind and we sit at a particular table: this one." He straightened up and jabbed a finger at my helmet. "So why don't you grab your little helmet and leave before we make you leave."

I chuckled, "Kid, you are in way over head. First of all, I didn't see any reservation signs on this table so I'm afraid you and your little friends are out of luck." I leaned forward and grabbed the bottle of brandy. "And as for your threat to make me leave, try it, and I'll shove this bottle where no sun in the galaxy will ever shine on it."

The ringleader made a move toward me but an auburn haired cadet to his right put an arm out restraining him. "Hold on." He warned. "I think I recognize this guy."

Blondie looked to Auburn, "Yeah?"

Auburn nodded, "Yeah, I seen him on the holo-news vids. He and some lady Mando have been doing jobs all over this side of the planet. He supposedly took down a Jedi."

Blondie turned back to me, an eyebrow raised. "Really?" He said. "Well Mando, where's your little lady friend, huh? She run away from you?"

That angered me. "She left on family business kid, drop it."

A devilish smirk crossed Blondie's face. He knew he had gotten under my skin. "What's the matter? Did she leave for a REAL man?" He leaned forward again. "I wouldn't worry about her leaving you though, cuz from what I hear, those Mando women are uglier than a Hutt's backside."

I glared daggers back at him. "That's still a hell of a lot prettier than your mother."

Blondie's expression changed from one of amusement to instant anger. Without saying another word he grabbed the edges of the table and flung it aside, sending my helmet and drinks crashing to the floor. He indicated the cadet standing to his left. "Get him!" He commanded.

The cadet, who was a head a half taller than me, and rippling with muscles, was obviously the group's strong man. He gave me this feral grin and charged at me. He was about 4 meters away which gave me plenty of time to act even in my slightly inebriated state. I stood up and pushed my chair away in one fluid motion. As he closed in on me I moved my left foot forward and shifted my weight to my right foot. When he was a meter away, I raised my left knee to my chest and sent a kick out. My left foot connected with the big man's right knee with enough force to straighten it out and halt his advance. Now if I were in a better mood, and sober, I might have stopped there and pulled my foot back before I did any permanent damage. Being that I wasn't in a better mood I kept my foot pushing forward. Muscles pulled and strained under the force of my kick, tendons and ligaments began to rip and tear until finally, the knee gave way with a sickening wet pop.

The big man fell to the floor clutching his leg, screaming in agony. The other cadets stood in shock until Blondie shouted, "Don't just stand there, nerf for brains, GET HIM!"

The remaining three cadets rushed at me. Two split off to my flanks while the third came right at me, right fist cocked to deliver a haymaker. Before he could reach me through, I stepped towards him and delivered a stiff fingered blow to his throat. The cadet grabbed at his neck and fell back. It was then that Auburn came up on my right side and grabbed my right arm, pinning it behind me. I looked to my left and saw the last cadet coming up to my left arm. Before he could grab me I raised my elbow and slammed it into his nose. I then turned towards Auburn, brought my left arm forward, and landed two quick jabs to his face, causing him to release my arm before he fell to the floor.

I started to turn back towards where Blondie was standing when stars exploded in front of my eyes. He had taken advantage of the distraction his friends had caused, came in, and landed the haymaker I stopped his friend from landing before. The force of the blow spun me around and almost made me lose my balance. By the time I came to my senses, Blondie's two remaining cohorts had grabbed both of my arms and pinned them behind my back.

Blondie sauntered up to me with an evil grin on his face. "This is what you get for messing with Imperials, scumbag."

When he was within the range of my legs I acted. Using the two cadets holding me as leverage, I leaned back, brought my legs up, and sent out a kick aimed at Blondie's face. Both feet connected, mashing his lips against his teeth. He stumbled back in shock, his hands going up to his face. As he went back his feet became tangled in the legs of the cadet, whose windpipe I'd practically crushed, sending him crashing to the ground.

I turned to my right and head butted Auburn in the nose, causing him to once again release my arm. I managed to spin out of the grip of the cadet holding my left arm, then, turning to face him; I grabbed the back of his neck with both hands and pulled his head down, while at the same time bringing my knee up. The cadet instinctively turned his head to the side and my knee connected with his temple, knocking him out cold.

I turned back to Auburn, who was still dazed from my head butt and stalked towards him. I kicked him in the stomach, which doubled him over, then followed up with a murderous uppercut that lifted him off his feet and sent him crashing to the ground unconscious.

I turned back towards Blondie and saw him standing there in disbelief. I grinned at him and shrugged, "This is what happens when you mess with a mando'ad, mirsheb."

He approached me cautiously. We circled each other for what seemed like hours, before engaging each other. For the next thirty seconds, we exchanged blows, bruising and bloodying ourselves in the process. I was fighting sloppy, allowing him to land punches that I normally would have avoided, blocked, or turned to my advantage. No, as much as I was punishing this kid for being an annoying pain in my shebs, I was also punishing myself. In my mind's eye, the cadet turned into the worst version of myself, hellbent on my own destruction. Each blow that landed. until finally, I laid him out on the floor. It was then that I saw a squad of storm troopers approaching me, ordering me to give myself up.

I gave them a bloody smile. "Hey, they started it." Then the troopers fired a series of stun rounds into me and my world went black.

**Chapter 7**

I awoke the next morning on a duracrete slab in my undergarments in a very well lit cell with jet black walls in what I could only assume was my nearest Imperial Detention Center. What had happened last night? _Oh yeah, I got into a brawl with a bunch of snot nosed imperials_. I smiled to myself and sat up. It was then that the first wave of aches and pains washed over me, making me groan. I might have won the fight the night before, but I was paying for it now. I slowly stood up and ambled over to the sink and mirror in my cell to see how bad I looked. My left eye and cheek were bruised pretty badly, I had a gash over my right eye and my upper lip was split. _Not bad. I've seen worse._

I turned on the faucet and began to clean myself up. The hot water and sanitizer stung as it hit my cuts. That sting helped to lift the fog I had been drifting in for the past two weeks. It brought me back to reality and also brought something, or rather someone that I had been neglecting to the forefront of my mind: Mahr'la. Ever since I first met her, my life had been turned upside down, but now, without her, it was quickly entering an uncontrolled downward spiral.

I splashed water on my face again, rinsing the sanitizer off. So what did that say about my feelings for her? I mean obviously my life seemed better off with her in it, but it could be that way with any girl. Or could it? I turned off the water and used my hands to wipe off the excess water, since there were no towels, and applied myself to answering that question. I peered into my reflection in the mirror, staring at myself as if I could peel back the layers of my physical body and see right into my soul. Mahr'la was not the first girl I had met since I'd started my little journey, but she was definitely the one that stuck out the most, and not just because she was the most recent either. No, there was something else about her. Something that made her so unique from any other girl, mando or otherwise, that I had ever met. So what was it?

I walked back to the "bed" and dropped onto my hind end when the answer hit me like a hover truck: It was me. When I was with Mahr'la I was myself. I didn't try to impress her, and I didn't have to try. Well, I didn't before she left me, but that wasn't the point. A large part of the reason I felt so bad when I thought of the look on Mahr'la's face, was that I had let her down. She had gotten to know me for who I was and by agreeing to meet Natassi, I had betrayed her and myself.

But did I love her? I still didn't know the answer to that. I knew that I knew her on many different levels, but was that love? It was then that I realized that while I might not have known the answer, I knew that I wanted and needed her in my life. _So that settles it._ I thought. _I guess I'm off to Mandalore then. _I had no idea how I was going to track her down, or even what I was going to say once I found her, but it didn't matter to me. I had a renewed sense of purpose. I had only one thing standing in between me and my goal: my cell door.

Before I could even begin to think of a way to break out, the cell door hissed open and a trooper came into the room.

"Get up." He ordered. "A friend of yours posted bail."

_A friend?_ _Hmm…must be Jett._

Without a word I got up and followed the trooper out of the cell, through the holding area, to the processing station. Here I got my armor back, including my helmet and a citation for drunk and disorderly conduct, which, I was told, was only due to the fact that I was not the first person to have gotten into a fight with that particular group of cadets. I _was_, however, the first person to fight that group and give each of them a good thrashing.

After getting dressed and suited up, I made my way out of the detention center where I saw Jett leaning up against his speeder, helmet off, with a big grin on his face. As I approached, he nodded, indicating my helmet.

"Take that bucket off ner'vod; let me get a look at you."

I popped the seals and lifted my helmet off my head and tucked it neatly under my arm. Jett's grin turned into a mocking smirk.

"You look like osik." He assessed.

I snorted, "You should see the other guys. Thanks for bailing me out ner'vod."

Jett slapped me once on the back, "That's two you owe me. Get in the speeder, let's go home."

I went around to the other side of Jett's speeder and climbed in placing my assault rifle on my right side. It was a spacious two seater, so I leaned the seat back and put my hands behind my head as Jett started the vehicle and took off.

After a couple of turns, Jett looked over at me. "Hey, when we get back, I have a new job for you if you're interested."

I shook my head, "Thanks, but no thanks. I think it's about time I take my leave of Bastion."

I sensed a slight shift in Jett's mood. "What are you planning to do?" He asked cautiously.

I looked over to him. "I'm going to go and find Mahr'la, Jett."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" He questioned. "I mean with the way she left, I don't know if she'd even want to see you much less talk to you."

I shook my head again. "I don't care. I finally figured out that I want her in my life and I will do whatever it takes to make sure she knows that, even if I get rejected in the end."

"But you don't even know if you can find her." He retorted as we pulled into his shop's garage. "My advice: just stay here and forget about her."

That last answer brought up a red flag in my mind. I brought the seat upright and fixed Jett with a scrutinizing look. "Why are you trying to dissuade me like this?" I asked. "Two weeks ago you admonished me for letting her go and now you're suddenly against me going out and finding her? Why?"

Jett shrugged, "I just don't want to see you get hurt ner'vod." He said as he opened the door and got out.

The red flag that originally went up turned into a full blown alarm that something was very wrong here. I opened my door and got out. I notice that Jett had already moved to leave the garage.

"Hey!" I shouted, making him stop. "You're lying to me." I stopped a few feet away from Jett. "Now tell me what the shab is going on here."

Jett stood there for 5 very long seconds with his back still turned to me. His shoulders rose and fell as he let out a long sigh as if bracing himself for something. "You can't go after her Marek." He finally said. "She's gone."

"I know she's gone, Jett," I replied. "That's WHY I'm going to go find her."

"No, that's not it." Jett retorted as he slowly turned around. "I mean you won't find her on Mandalore."

I gave him a confused look. "What the hell do you mean? How could you possibly know that?"

Jett looked down, his body language broadcasting his shame like a fleet beacon. "They have her."

"Who has her?" I asked, wary of the answer.

"The Black Skulls," Jett replied.

I crossed my arms over my chest, "And just how do you know that?" I asked as if I didn't know the answer.

"Because I turned her into them." He answered.

Fury ignited in me. In one fluid motion, I uncrossed my arms, drew my right arm back and landed a roundhouse right to Jett's left jaw. I winced in pained as I further damaged my bruised knuckles, but the pain only added to my anger.

"Hutuun'la aruetii! (Cowardly traitor!)" I cursed and spat on the ground at Jett's feet.

That comment brought Jett's head up, with a fire in _his _eyes. "Aruetii?!" He screamed. "I had a contract to fulfill!"

"Since when?!" I shouted back.

"Since before you even got here!" He replied. "Why do you think I kept giving you two local jobs?"

I thought back to when we first arrived and had a sudden realization. "So you weren't looking the Black Skull up on the net when we first got here were you?"

Jett shook his head, "No, I wasn't. I was looking to see if I had received any messages regarding you two. When I saw your names on the first message I opened I knew that the Skulls had activated the Bounty Hunter's clause of our contract, which was normally for weapons and parts for their ships. When she left, I had to act. I booked her trip home for her and relayed that information to the Skulls. They picked her up before she even got out of the system." He fought to soften his voice. "My hope was that you would eventually forget about her and move on. Obviously, I was wrong."

"You're damned right you were wrong," I replied. "So tell me where they took her.

Jett shrugged, "I don't know."

I gave him an incredulous look, "What do you mean you 'don't know'?"

"I mean I don't know!" He replied. "Whenever they interact with me, they come here. They came to me to recruit me. Whenever they placed an order, they came here to pick it up." He dropped his hands in a useless gesture at his side. "I'm sorry ner'vod. I wish I could change what happened but I can't."

I could hear the sincerity in his voice and my anger lessened a bit, but I was still pretty steamed. "So what are you going to do when I leave? Turn me in too?"

"If I was going to do that, I'd have just let you go, without telling you about Mahr'la." He answered.

"So what are you going to tell them about me?" I asked. "I _am_ going to leave, and I assume that your 'employers' are going to keep after you about it."

Jett thought for a moment then surprised me when he said, "Hit me."

"What?"

"I said hit me." He repeated. "I'll tell them that you figured out that I was working for them, we got into it, and you beat me and left." He straightened up and lifted his chin in the air. "So go on." He ordered. "Hit me."

It didn't take me much to get myself angry again. I reached my right arm over my left shoulder, and then shot it forward, smashing my armored forearm into Jett's jaw. Worried for my knuckles, I followed up with a left backhand, smacking the other side of his face with my gauntlet armor. I reached forward, grabbing the back of his neck with both hands and pulled his head down, while bringing my knee up, breaking his nose and sending blood spattering onto my armor and the duracrete floor.

Jett stumbled back and sank to his left knee. I started to charge him but stopped when he held his left hand up. "Ok. Ok. Enough. I yield." He panted. Blood had begun to stream down his face. "The knee to the nose will also give me two black eyes. That should be convincing enough." He slowly stood up. "Now," he continued, "What do you need from me before you go?" He asked.

I regarded him carefully. "You do realize that by helping me, you are breaking your contract right?"

He shrugged, "Shab them. They'll probably end my contract after I tell them that you got away. Besides, ner vod, we Mando'ade need to stick together." He walked over to a workbench at the back of the garage, grabbed a semi-clean towel and held it up to his nose. "So as I was saying, what else do you need?"

I thought about it for a bit. When I figured out what I wanted I nodded and unslung my assault rifle with a smile. "Well first off, you can upgrade this with magnetic clamps, so I don't need to use the strap."

Jett nodded once. "Done. Anything else?"

"I'll let you know if I think of anything else before I leave," I responded.

"So do you know where you're going to start looking?" He asked.

I looked up as I thought about it, and then a smile crept across my face. "I have an idea or two. I'll be fine."

I spent the next two days gathering my supplies and readying my ship for takeoff. Jett made good his promise and installed magnetic clamps on both my rifle and my back plate. He also fitted my rifle with a quick release button to disengage the clamps so I didn't have to struggle to grab the rifle when I needed it. In addition, he provided me with a large supply and vast assortment, of darts for my dart launcher on my right forearm.

On the day I departed, Jett came up to me with a data pad while I was finishing up the fueling procedures on my ship. I accepted the datapad and gave him a quizzical look. "What's this?" I asked without really looking at the datapad.

"It's as much data as I could dig up on the Black Skulls added to what I already know of them personally. I hope it helps." He said. "I also hope that it helps make up for turning Mahr'la in. I am so sorry ner'vod."

I grinned and smacked him on the back. "No worries, Jett'ika. Just consider us even for the time being. But you'll understand if I don't come back here for a long while right?" I turned back to my ship. I then disconnected the fuel pump and recapped the refueling port on the ship.

He chuckled, "I understand." He walked toward, reached his hand forward, and we clasped forearms. "Run fast and shoot straight." He said solemnly.

"Thanks," I replied and turned to board my ship. I got to the ladder when Jett's voice stopped me.

"Just out of curiosity," he stated, "Do you have anything resembling a plan?"

I gave him a feral grin. "Yeah, hunt down these pirates until I find and free Mahr'la, then kill the lot of 'em."

"And what if they've already killed her?" Jett asked.

I fixed him with a death glare, "You better hope they didn't" I growled, "because if they did, then after I'm done with them, I'm coming back for you."

**Chapter 8**

So I found it kind of ironic that I was traveling to the planet I first met Mahr'la on, again. The trip itself was pretty uneventful. I spent most of my time in hyperspace going over the datapad that Jett had given me. As he had said, there really wasn't all that much information on it. There was a bit of a history, some of which I learned from Jett when he first told Mahr'la and I about them. After the rogue Imperials were sent into hiding, the pirate gangs that were employed by them scattered. Then, a couple of years ago, some the ex-imperials had started the Black Skulls which meant told me that these guys weren't just some ragtag group of pirates. I had to expect that these guys were going to be pretty tough to take on, and while I truly believed in my abilities to overcome adversity, I knew that I would have to be extra careful when dealing with these guys.

But, first thing's first: I needed information. I decided to come back to the planet where all of this started, mostly because this was where I first encountered the Black Skulls, so it made sense to assume that they had a presence here. I also decided to visit that run of the mill cantina. I waited until just before closing time to make my appearance since I figured that there were bound to be Black Skulls that frequented that place, and I wanted to limit my chances of running into any of them for the time being. When I met them, I wanted it to be on my terms.

I made my way to the front door and paused before stepping over to it. I wanted to make a big entrance, but the door had a motion sensor and would slide open as soon as I stepped in front of it, so kicking it open would've been an exercise in futility. I decided to go with a more subtle approach and simply drew my blaster pistol. I took a deep breath to steady myself and stepped into the doorway. The door quietly hissed open and I stepped into the dimly lit cantina. I was happy to notice that there were only two patrons at the bar being served by the devaronian bartender/my new informant. I pointed my gun at the ceiling and fired one shot, making all three individuals jump. I motioned to the door.

"That was last call gentlemen," I said to the patrons. "You should leave _now._"

The men looked to the bartender, who was slowly recognizing who I was. When the full realization hit him, he visibly paled.

"Umm…umm y-y-you h-h-heard the man." He said to the patrons. "It's c-c-closing time."

I was pleased, and a little bit relieved, when the two men simply shrugged, got up off of their stools, and ambled out of the cantina. After the door hissed shut behind them, I quickly turned around and hit the locking mechanism on the door. I slowly holstered my gun and made my way over to the bar until I was standing right in front of the bartender. He visibly gulped, which made me smile behind my helmet.

"So, uh, what can I do for you mister Mandalorian guy?" He nervously asked.

"Do you remember our little deal?"

"Yeah, yeah, sure I remember." He replied. "I give whatever Intel I have when you come here chasing a bounty." Sweat began to roll down his face. "So who are you going after?"

I reached into one of my pouches, pulled out the Black Skulls patch, and slapped it on to the bar's surface. The bartender's eyes widened in surprise when he recognized the patch and he tried to cover it up. Unfortunately for him, however, I had already seen his reaction.

"Tell me where the Black Skull's hideout is on this planet," I demanded.

The bartender scratched the back of his neck. "Black Skulls? I don't think I've ever heard of them."

_I don't have time for games like this._ My right hand shot out and I grabbed the devaronian by his left horn and slammed his face into the bar. I moved the patch closer to his now bloodied nose and growled at him. "Don't play games with me di'kut. Tell me where they are."

"Oh, you mean the Black _Skulls._" He replied as if my smashing his face into the bar suddenly jogged his memory. "Well, uh, I, uh, I know they are here, but, uh, I don't know as if I seen exactly where they live, ya know?"

I heard a faint fumbling sound coming from the other side of the bar. I peered over and saw the bartender's hands pawing at the underside of the counter

I pressed his head harder against the bar. "Why don't you keep your hands where I can see them? Or else I'll have to see if devaronians have any regenerative properties"

His hands came up. "Okay OKAY! Just take it easy pal."

"Where are they?" I asked again, pushing a little bit of agitation into my voice.

"Let me up and I'll tell you what I know okay?"

I slowly released the bartender's left horn. He straightened up and adjusted his clothing. "Start talking."

"I don't know exactly where they are."

I reached my right hand over my shoulder, grabbed my assault rifle, hit the release button on the magnetic clamps, and pulled it back over my shoulder. "Well, I guess I have no use for you."

The bartender started waving his hands in front of himself. "Wait! I said I don't know _exactly_ where they are. They are in the warehouse district."

"And who can tell me _exactly _where the Black Skulls are?"

"Well, the local safety office deals with them pirates all the time." The bartender explained. "Word on the street is that they cut some kinda peace accord. Law enforcement leaves the pirates alone and in return, the pirates don't burn the safety building to the ground with everyone in it."

"Okay. What about numbers?"

He shrugged. "20 at least. They bring a lot of new recruits out here, teach 'em the ropes so to speak. Once they prove themselves, they move up the chain."

I regarded him carefully. "And how did you come by this information?"

The devaronian grinned. "Are you kidding me? This is a bar! People say all kinds of things when they're drunk."

I tapped my right index finger on the outside if my assault rifle's trigger guard and tilted my head to the left as I considered what I had just been told. Just then something occurred to me. "You know it's interesting."

The bartender's grin faded and he nervously eyed my trigger finger. "W-what's interesting?"

I shrugged. "That you can tell me all sorts of things about the pirate's operations here: You know their numbers, how they cycle men through, you even know that they've struck deals with local law enforcement. And yet, you have absolutely no idea where their base is."

As he was about to stammer out an excuse, I heard the sound of multiple swoops and speeder bikes pulling up to the cantina. I quickly thought back to when the bartender was fumbling with the edge of the bar. At first, I had thought he was reaching for some kind of hold out blaster. It was just then that I realized that what he was really reaching for was a _Panic Button!_

"Shabla hut'umn!" I shouted and raised my assault rifle up.

There was a knock at the door and bartender suddenly became very relaxed and even confident. "In about 20 seconds, every Black Skull on Genth will come crashing through that door." He chuckled. "Been nice seein' ya!"

I seethed with anger. "You won't be seeing much of anything mirsheb." I growled. I aimed my rifle and fired, hitting him in the middle of the neck. The bartender's eyes went wide as a small puff of smoke rose into the air. He clenched his hand to his neck and sank to the floor trying to speak, but with the hole in his neck, his voice was full of gurgling and bubbling as blood flooded into his throat.

Off to my left, I heard the distinct sound of a door charge being placed and knew I had only seconds to act. I grabbed on to the far edge of the bar with my left hand and jumped, using the bar itself to pull myself completely over. My feet left the floor just as the door exploded inward. Blaster bolts sizzled over the bar a split second later as I landed on the floor with a "thump".

I quickly gathered my legs under myself. Blaster bolts still flew over my head as I turned on the infrared sensors on my HUD. There was a group of five individuals standing in the bar firing at me with six more waiting to come in. I was about to rise up and start shooting back when a hand grasped at my right knee. I looked down and saw the bartender, hand still clamped around his neck, pawing at me. I saw he was suffering, so I did the only thing I could do: I placed the barrel of my rifle between his eyes and pulled the trigger.

The pirates involuntarily ducked when they heard the shot, giving me a small window of opportunity. I reached to the small of my back and grabbed a flash bang. I hit the activator button, turned the light and sound dampeners up on my HUD, and tossed the grenade over the bar. When it exploded I popped up and began firing, dropping all five individuals in the room with multiple holes burned into their torsos.

Suddenly another pirate stepped into the doorway, shouldering a weapon that made my eyes widen. _Plex Rocket! Osik!_ I turned off the infrared and dove towards the opening at the other end of the bar as the pirate hit the firing stud. A rocket tore out of its launch tube, streaked in, and exploded a meter to the right of where I had been. The shockwave helped propel me out from behind the bar as wooden shrapnel pinged off of my armor.

I scrambled to my feet as debris started to rain down and took cover behind the short end of the bar. I poked my head out and saw the pirate holding the launcher swing in my direction. I swore and dived back the way I came from as a second rocket screamed through the air and detonated a few feet past the end of the bar, creating a crater in the middle of the floor.

As I dove I twisted my body as fast as I could so I was facing my attacker. I landed hard on my shoulder, sending a spike of pain down my arm. I forced myself to ignore the pain as I raised my rifle and sighted my target. The pirate was just starting to reload his launcher when he saw my movement. He dropped the launcher and tried to grab his blaster pistol from its holster, an effort that proved futile as I walked blaster fire up his legs and into his torso before he even started to pull his weapon out. He crashed to the floor in a heap.

There was a momentary silence as the remaining pirates regrouped. I took this opportunity to take cover behind what was left of the bar. I popped up again just as two more pirates entered the cantina. I fired five shots, dropping both individuals.

Two more pirates stepped into the room. I quickly targeted the one to my left, a Rodian, and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened. I quickly ducked back behind the bar and looked the weapon over. I knew I wasn't out of ammo, so what caused the malfunction? I then spied one of the magnetic clamps that was placed right next to the energy transference coils. Not having the time to test my theory, I decided that needed to finish the last three pirates with my pistol.

I clamped my rifle to my back armor plate, drew my blaster pistol and rose up to continue my fight. Without warning I was struck by something massive with enough force to make stars appear before my eyes. I shook my head to clear it and found myself being pinned to a wall by my arms by a very large and angry Gamorrean who was gouging the paint on my abdominal armor as he tried to gore me with his tusks. I was still able to bend my arms at the elbows so I brought my right hand up and clenched it, ejecting my gauntlet vibroblade. I then pointed my fist at the Gamorrean's arm and started slicing. My adversary started squealing and, reacting to the pain I was inflicting, let go of my right arm. He quickly grabbed me again, but I was able to raise my arm up, so he was only able to grab me under my armpit. Before he could continue his attack, I pointed my vibroblade at my opponent's neck and drove it down. The Gamorrean started squealing louder and his grip on my left arm and right side tightened to the point that it almost made me yelp in pain, but did nothing to stop me from driving the blade into his neck time and time again. Then slowly, as blood loss started to take effect, the squeals started to die down and I was slowly lowered to the floor. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the squeals stopped and the Gamorrean slumped over dead, leaving me standing there with blood and gore covering most of the right side of my body.

I looked up and saw the two remaining pirates, a human and a Rodian, their faces a study of shock and fear. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught sight of my blaster pistol, which had been knocked out of my hand when the Gamorrean slammed into me. Without hesitation, I dove to my right in the direction in which my blaster lay. I hit the floor and skidded to a stop inches away from it. I scrambled to my feet, grabbing the gun in the process, and stood up with the blaster held in a two handed grip. I aimed at the pirates who, having been shaken out of their shock by my movement, were finally reacting to the threat I posed. The human began to raise his own blaster and even made it as high as his hip before I put three shots into his chest, dropping him.

The Rodian thought better of his chances of being able to survive against me on his own and turned and bolted out the doorway. I, however, couldn't have him running off and alerting his compatriots, so I went after him, being careful not to trip over any of the debris that was strewn all over the cantina. I exited the building and looked to my left as I heard the undeniable sound of a speeder bike starting up. The Rodian and I looked at each other at the exact same moment. Time seemed to freeze as we stood, staring each other down, waiting to see who was going to make the first move. I decided I would move first, raised my blaster, aimed it at the Rodian's left shoulder and fired. I hoped that hitting him in the shoulder would knock him off his bike, and then I would proceed to beat the location of the pirate's hideout from him. Unfortunately for both me and the Rodian, he decided to try to turn to his left and bug out. The blaster bolt that was intended for the Rodian's shoulder instead burned into his chest, knocking him from the bike, but also killing him instantly.

I kept my weapon out as I cautiously approached the Rodian lest I find any other pirates sneaking about. I holstered my blaster and knelt down to check the Rodian's vital signs. _Osik, he is dead. Now how am I going to find where these shabla pirates are?_ I was about to hop on one of the speeders and just search the warehouse district when I remembered something the bartender told me before I killed him. I smiled as I hopped on the speeder bike that the Rodian had just vacated and headed off towards the public safety office.

I wound my way through the streets, being cautious of my speed as I didn't want to attract any more attention than I already had. After a few minutes of driving, I pulled up in front of the safety office, hopped off the bike, and made my way inside. I was a little weary, because I had no way of knowing how the officers would react to my request, and I didn't want to waste any time fighting these people when there was a pirate hideout that I needed to find.

I walked up to the front desk and found the same officer, that I had met on my first trip to this planet, asleep in much the same manner as he was when I first met him. As with our first encounter, I jolted him awake again by slamming my fists down on his desk, since I didn't have a scumbag to drop on the floor. It took the officer a few seconds to completely come out of his stupor and recognize me. When he did his eyes opened wide in surprise. "It's you! What are _you_ doing back here?" He then noticed the carbon scoring and blood covering my armor. "And what in the world happened to you?"

I crossed my arms in front of my chest and ignored his question. "I need to know where the Black Skulls hideout is." I held up my right hand to forestall any excuse he was about to make. "Don't bother trying to tell me that you don't know who the Black Skulls are or where they operate from." I jerked a thumb towards the door. "The bartender in the cantina a few blocks from here told me all about the little 'deal' you have going with the pirates."

The officer blinked a few times, took in a deep breath, and let out a long sigh. "What are you planning on doing to 'em?"

"That's none of your business," I replied. "Let's just say that they aren't going to be an issue for you any longer."

The officer arched his right eyebrow. "That's a gutsy objective. Are you sure you have the skill to handle it?"

I chuckled and jerked a thumb towards the door. "Go check the cantina, and after you check on the 12 bodies in there, ask me that question again." I shrugged. "As for guts; I've obviously got a lot more than you or your men do."

The officer stood up, his face red with anger. "That's an unfair assessment." He gestured behind him as one of his subordinates walked behind him. "Look at these men!" They're just motley group of locals who wanted to help keep their community safe. They aren't trained to go up against pirates like this, and I don't have the resources to train them. Hell, the only reason I am here is that I was assigned here because they needed someone with military experience to run this dump!"

That bit of information made me regard this office in a new light. I held up my hands in a placating gesture. "I didn't realize you were military. My apologies." I offered my hand. "I'm Marek Vulen. I know we've met before, but I never truly introduced myself." If this were any other place, I would have come in with my weapons blazing, and if this officer hadn't told me he was ex-military I still might have started shooting up the place, but I had a bit of a soft spot for soldiers, even if they did fight for hopeless causes most of the time.

The officer cautiously accepted my hand. "Sergeant Geron Droll. Former New Republic marine and apology accepted." The sergeant carefully sat back down at his desk. "So you are going to take out the Black Skulls base here?"

I nodded, "That's the plan. I just need you to tell me where exactly it is. I can take care of the rest."

"Why didn't you just get that info out of Lugach, the bartender?" Geron asked with a furrowed brow. "That stink weasel knows more about the Black Skulls than I do."

I scratched the back of my neck. "Remember those 12 bodies back at the cantina that I mentioned?"

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, he's one of them."

Geron gave me a surprised looked and chuckled. "You killed him?"

I shrugged, "I actually hadn't planned to, but he called in the Black Skulls to try and ambush me, so I put two blaster bolts in him with my rifle."

Geron smiled. "Well, he got no less than he deserved. Now let me get you the location of that base." With that, he started up his desk terminal and within seconds he transferred the location to my data pad. "It's actually not that far from here. You'll probably want to enter through the back door, which is down an alleyway to the left of the building. All the buildings in the warehouse district were built exactly the same with the main storage area in front and the office in the back. I've done a little recon on the area and know that they like to keep two guards at the mouth of the alley and a camera that has only a range of one block."

I nodded as I brought up the map of the area on my HUD. He was right, that it was only 6 blocks away. I was about to shut the map off when something caught my eye that made me frown. "That alley is a dead end?"

Geron nodded, "Yep, and you'll have to be quick if you want to hit the door before they react to you taking out their guards."

"Yeah, I kinda figured that out already." I turned to leave. "Thanks for the information, Geron. Maybe I'll see you around if I pass through here again."

Geron grinned. "Yeah, you do that. But next time, can you try to _not_ cause mayhem, death, and destruction?"

I smiled under my helmet. "No guarantees mate." With that, I turned and walked out of the building.

Once outside I turned on the mini map in my HUD and brought up the immediate area and made my way northeast to the pirate's warehouse, making sure that I stuck as close to the buildings on my left as I could in order to hide my silhouette. I ducked down an alleyway when I was about 4 blocks away. I pulled out my macro binoculars and poked my head out of the alley and towards my target building. Just as Geron had said, there were two pirates guarding the entrance to the alley with a holo cam mounted on the corner of the warehouse itself. The pirates, a human, and a Twi'lek were sitting on medium sized plasteel crates, staring blankly at the building across the street from them. As far as I could tell, they might have been sleeping with their eyes open.

_Time to wake them up then, _I thought as I placed the macro binoculars back into their proper pouch on my belt. I drew my blaster pistol and made sure that it was set to "kill". I had thought about just stunning the guards, but then I figured that if only the highest ranking individuals knew the location of the next pirate base, they wouldn't be the ones standing watch. I synched up the pistol's 2x scope with my visor and took a deep cleansing breath to calm my nerves.

I sprinted out from my cover in the alley and headed directly at the guards. When I was 3 blocks away, I raised my blaster, took aim at the holo cam, and fired, scoring a hit with the first shot. I kept up my pace to close the distance as sparks flew out of the exploding cam and shook the guards out of their stupor. I lowered my aim to the human guard, the one closest to me, who had just turned to look my way when I fired two shots, burning two holes in his chest. I was just 2 blocks away when I shifted my aim again to target the Twi'lek guard who, upon having a holo cam explode over his head and seeing his comrade fall over dead, actually managed to pull his blaster and fire off a shot that raced through the air and grazed my left bicep just underneath the shoulder armor. I bit back on the pain and forced myself to focus. I fired two more shots, hitting the Twi'lek in the neck and face, causing him to crumple to the sidewalk like someone's discarded clothing.

A few seconds later, I reached the mouth of the alley and stop just shy of turning the corner. I peeked around the corner and looked down the short alley, expecting to have to jerk back from incoming blaster fire. There was nothing. The back door stayed closed. I resisted the urge to run down the alley towards the door and decided I needed to check something first. I turned on my thermal imaging and looked at the back of the building. There were seven individuals sitting around a table about three meters away from the door. From the looks of their movements, I could tell that they were most likely playing sabaac. The fact that no one had so much as gotten up, meant that either they were just that oblivious to what was happening right outside their door, or they were baiting me for a trap.

Hoping for the former, but planning on the latter, I cautiously made my way towards the back door, watching the thermal image the whole time, expecting at any minute for someone to get up, open the door and start firing. I reached the door with all the pirates inside, still engrossed in their game. I turned off the thermal, holstered my blaster, and quietly set a frame charge on the door. Once set, I pulled a flash-bang grenade from my belt with my right hand and prepared to set off the charge with the remote I held in my left.

I backed away from the door a few paces and hit the remote. The back door blew off of its hinges and into the back of the warehouse. I triggered the fuse on the flashbang and tossed it in. With my right hand, I grabbed my blaster pistol and flicked the fire set to "stun". I heard the tell-tale "pop" of the flash-bang and made my way into the back room, pistol raised. The pirates were all dazed by the flash-bang and became easy targets. I dropped them one, by one with stun shots. I then proceeded to clear the rest of the warehouse and found out that the pirates had actually turned the front of the building into living quarters, with enough rooms to allow me to separate my captives from each other and effectively interrogate them. Having cleared the last room, I walked back to the office at the rear of the building, and after pumping one more stun shot into each individual holstered my weapon. Now it was time for some dirty work.

Chapter 9

Interrogation, torture, persuasion, no matter how you choose to define it, is a messy business in which I have never taken much pleasure in. It was no different with the information I was trying to get out of the pirates I captured and now held hostage in their own warehouse. The extra rooms the pirates had added to the building actually allowed me to separate all seven individuals, two human males, four Weequay males, and a twi'lek female, and question them individually. I put the humans and Weequays into the additional rooms and left the twi'lek in the back office. I also grabbed the sheets off of several of the bunks in the rooms and cut them into strips, making them perfect for tournaquetting a limb before cutting it off. I was hoping that I wouldn't have to resort to removing limbs, but my father, and experience had taught me that smacking a person around doesn't always loosen that person's lips.

Over the next four hours, I made my way from prisoner to prisoner, starting with the humans and then moved on to the Weequays. I ended my questioning with the female twi'lek which, as it turned out, actually proved fortuitous since all the information I had gathered from the others pointed to her as being the head of this particular group of scumbags.

Before walking into the back office, I stopped in each of the other rooms and put one blaster bolt into my captives since I didn't need them anymore. As I made my way back to the back office I noticed the twi'lek, who I had faced away from the other rooms, suddenly slump her head down. I smiled to myself at her obvious attempt to bluff me. I decided if she wanted to fake sleeping, I had better wake her up. I put extra weight on my steps and clomped into the room. As I walked past her left-hand side, I reached out with my right hand and gave her a good swat across the back of the head. The pirate jumped in her seat and glared daggers at me that took away from her physical beauty.

"I don't know who you think you are," she spat at me, "but you're never going to get away with this."

I positioned myself directly in front of her, crossed my arms in front of my chest, and chuckled at her. "Well now, I wouldn't be so sure of that if I were you. I know an awful lot about your little 'organization' already." I began counting out on my fingers. "One: I know that the Black Skulls are led by ex-Imps. Two: there are about 250 of you. Three: You have operations on 4 other planets, including the world you use as your main base, and communication goes from the top down."

The Twi'lek's glare didn't waiver. "If you know so much, what do you need me for?"

"It's simple, really. I know that only the head of the operation on a particular planet knows the location of the next base up the ladder." I leaned forward. "So what I want from you is the location of the next base."

The pirate opened her mouth as if to reply but instead spat on at me, spattering my helmet with little globs of spit and phlegm. I casually wiped the spittle off of my helmet and walked behind the twi'lek.

"You know I did a bit of reading on twi'lek physiology when I was a teen especially that of twi'lek females, not surprisingly as I'm sure most boys that age do the same thing. Of course with my curious nature, I'm sure I delved into the subject more than most would." I reached up with both my hands and started to gently caress the top of her lekku. "I found out some amazing things. Things that even most males, twi'lek or otherwise, don't know or have probably forgotten. For instance, the fact that the undersides of a female Twi-lek's lekku are a highly sensitive erogenous zone." I slowly traced my fingers down and underneath the lekku. She inhaled sharply through her nose and jerked back in her chair. "The truly amazing thing; however, is that all those sense receptors also make that portion of the lekku extremely sensitive to other sensations, such as pain."

Before she could ask what I was talking about, I moved my right hand away from her head, ejected my gauntlet Vibro blade with a clenched fist, and drove the blade to the hilt into the underside of her right lekku. The pirate emitted an ear piercing screech and began thrashing in her chair. After 10 seconds, I withdrew the blade. With my left Hand, I grabbed her left lekku and jerked her head back.

"I'm going to ask you again, schutta, where is the next base."

Her answer came in ragged breaths, "Go to hell, Mandalorian scum."

"Wrong answer." I seethed and plunged my blade back into her lekku. I held it there for 10 seconds again while she thrashed and screamed." I pulled the blade back out again and yanked her head back again. "Where is it?"

"I don't know!"

"LIAR!" I screamed and stabbed the lekku again. Again she writhed in her seat and screamed. I withdrew the blade and moved over to her right side, being careful not to slip on the blood that was already beginning to pool on the floor. I leaned in close and spoke softly into her ear. "I can keep this up for as long as I need to. Eventually, I'll just end up cutting the whole bloody tail off and just move on to the next one. Don't worry about bleeding out though, because I have plenty of bandages and bacta to keep you alive and kicking. That is, assuming you still have legs by the time we're done here."

I think my prisoner must have begun to realize how hopeless her situation was because she bowed her head and began sobbing.

"Why are you doing this?" She asked through her tears.

"I'm trying to reclaim something that was taken from me," I replied. "You just happen to be the first step in getting where I want to go."

"But what could we possibly have that you…" She stopped as she had a sudden realization. "That is unless you're the other Mando we were told to look out for."

I smiled behind my visor and was about to take a step back and bow when I noticed the twi'lek starting to look a little ashen, which is saying a lot about a woman with blue skin. I quickly grabbed a bunch of bandages and the bacta spray. I sprayed some of the bacta directly on the stab wounds, then some on the bandages, and began wrapping her lacerated lekku with them. I didn't want her to die, yet, because I knew I needed to get more information out of her. I quickly looked around and spotted a food conservator off to my right. I went over and rummaged through several cases of alcoholic beverages until I found a small case of assorted fruit juices and energy drinks.

Over the next few minutes I gave the fluids to my prisoner and after about a half hour she slowly began to regain some of her colors. I grabbed an extra chair and sat down a meter in front of her leaning towards her with my forearms on my knees.

"So, are you ready to tell me what I need to know?" I asked, "Or do I need to put you through another near death situation?"

"I don't know where the next base is." She shakily answered.

I scowled. "Stop lying already will you?" I gestured towards the other rooms and then to the back door. "Your boys up front are too tied up and dead to help you, and there's no one else around that likes what you guys do here. You're out of allies and options. Tell. Me. Where. Is. Your. Next. Base?"

Before she could answer I heard a loud beeping sound coming from behind me. I twirled around and noticed a holo-net transceiver and communications console. A small red light on the console flashed in a steady rhythm as the beeping continued. The console itself looked as if it was pre-Clone Wars equipment. I turned back to the twi'lek. "Is that communicator audio only?"

She nodded her head. "Yes. It's a security measure so people who aren't supposed to hear the conversation and are out of range of the hologram can't figure out the location of the caller by the background images."

I walked over to the console and turned to face the pirate, my finger poised over the flashing button that would open the connection. "I'm going to turn this on and you are going to talk as if nothing is wrong. If you give any indication that you are not alone or that you have been compromised, I'll kill you on the spot. Are we clear?"

The twi'lek took a couple of deep breaths to calm herself and then nodded.

I reached over and turned on the receiver. There was a buzz of static for a few seconds before a gruff male voice crackled through.

"Genth Base, this is Irith Base. How copy?"

The twi'lek swallowed hard. "Genth here Irith, I read you loud and clear."

"Good" came the reply, "Just calling in to see how the new recruits are working out."

"The recruits are performing perfectly. They should be good to go in a week or so."

The caller chuckled, "Good to hear. By the way, we have reports that the rogue Mandalorian that the bosses are interested in might come sniffing around. If you run across someone in Blue and black armor, with an antiquated assault rifle, and a mando helmet, let us know."

"I will Irith Base. Genth out." She looked up at me as I killed the connection and glared. "There, are you happy now?"

I snorted and shook my head. "You know, you pirates aren't all that bright. Naming a base after the planet it's located on? I mean your communications are from the top, down, but come on! That was almost too easy."

"So what are you going to do to us now?" She asked.

I shrugged and walked up to her. "This." And I punched her square in the face, knocking her out cold.

I spent the next couple of minutes attaching "presents" to the underside of the chairs of all my prisoners as well as key structural points of the building.. I started in the rooms in the front of the building and worked my way back towards the office. I finished up just as the twi'lek was regaining consciousness. She shook her head as she came to.

"Good, you're awake." I said to her. I reached into one of my front pouches, pulled out a small remote, and began programming it. When I finished I held it up for her to see, with my thumb poised above the trigger button. "Do you know what this is?"

She gulped, "It's a remote detonator."

I held up a finger. "Close. Actually it's a timer, which is linked with the explosives I have placed under the chairs of everyone here, including yourself. When I hit the button, you'll have about 5 minutes to free yourself before you're nothing more than a stain on the floor." I made sure I had all my things, hit the button on the timer, and headed towards the door waving at the twi'lek whose jaw had just about dropped to the floor with the realization of what I'd just done. "It's been a pleasure."

I walked through the door before I could hear any reply the twi'lek would have given me. To my right, I noticed a small refuse bin, shrugged, and tossed the timer in it. I casually proceeded to the street, intending to make my way back to the safety office to let Geron know of my success. I was surprised to actually see him sitting on one of the crates at the mouth of the alley as I rounded the corner. His hands jammed casually into his pants pockets.

"What are you doing here?" I asked.

Geron looked at me shrugged, "I'd heard that there was a new beautification project going on in this area, and wanted to check it out." He raised his eyebrows, "So how'd it go?"

I motioned for him to stand up and follow me. "Why don't I tell you about it back at the station." He got up and together we headed down the street. "Besides, I hear that building is set for demolition in about four minutes."

Geron glanced back over his shoulder. "Is that so? So I take it you rigged the place to explode?"

I shrugged, "The place; the people in it. Just trying to be thorough." We walked another half block when I noted my hair was itching like crazy. It was then that I realized that I'd had my bucket on for the better part of 24 hours. I reached up with both hands, popped the seal on my suit and lifted the helmet off of my head, taking a deep breath in through my nose and out through my mouth as I clipped my bucket to my belt. I raked my right hand through my short hair a couple of times to shake some of the sweat and grease out. As I lowered my hand I noticed Geron staring at me. "Is something wrong?" I asked.

Geron shook his head. "Nope, I was just wondering if you were ever going to take that thing off. This is the first time I've seen you without it. It's nice to put a face to the voice that's all."

"Oh, ok," I answered. I saw through my peripheral vision that Geron was still taking glances at me as we walked, but that he was also looking at my rifle. After another 2 minutes and 4 blocks down I stopped and turned towards Geron.

"Are you sure nothing is wrong?" I asked. "Because you keep staring at me and my rifle."

"Well, it's just tha…" Geron's answer was cut off by an enormous fireball that erupted from the location of the Black Skull's hideout. The ground shook mildly and a short breeze passed over us as the shockwave from the blast projected outward. Geron looked at the explosion with an approving nod. "Well, that's certainly thorough enough."

"You're welcome."

Geron shot me a hard glance. "You _do_ realize that this means more cleanup work for my men and I don't you?"

I shrugged, "I said, 'No promises' didn't I?" Now I gave Geron a hard look of my own. "Back to my earlier question: Why were you staring at me?"

"You said your name was Marek _Vulen_, correct."

I nodded, "Yes I did."

Geron raised an eyebrow. "Any relation to Doneb Vulen?"

The question took me completely by surprise. "Yyyes, he's my father." I stammered as I slowly moved my right hand to the blaster strapped to my hip, not know what was coming next.

Geron clapped his hands and began walking again, this time with a bit more pep in his step. I had to jog to catch up to him. "HA! I knew it!" He exclaimed.

His joyful exclamation caught me completely off guard. When I caught up to Geron, I grabbed his left shoulder and spun him around. "What the shab was that?!" I shouted, my heart thumping in my chest from adrenaline. "Did you know my father?"

Geron grinned from ear to ear, "Know him? I fought with him in the Civil War! He saved my hide on more than one occasion."

"How did you know we were related?" I asked.

Geron reached out and tussled my hair like I was a young whelp. "Two main reasons: One, you are a spitting image of your old man. The other reason is attached to your back there." He indicated my rifle and began walking again. I quickly matched my pace to his. "I would know that weapon anywhere." He continued. "Your father loved that blasted thing and it never let him down, which is amazing considering how old it is. How's it been treating you?"

I gave him a wry grin. "Right now? It's not. I think some of the mods I made to it might be causing some problems."

Geron patted me on the shoulder and gestured in the general direction of the safety office. "Well, you're in luck. We just happen to have a weapon's shop in the basement of the office. So I'll make you a deal: You swap stories about your old man with me and I'll let you have the run the shop."

That made me smile. "Deal." I yawned, and it suddenly dawned on me that I was dead tired.

Geron noticed as well and asked, "When was the last time you slept?"

I rubbed my eyes as I thought. "30, maybe 32 hours?" I replied. "I've gone longer without sleep."

"Yeah, I bet," Geron said with a snort. "We have a spare storage room in the back of the office. I'll have a cot brought in so you can get some rack time."

I gave him a cautionary glare. The thought of sleeping with a group of people who I didn't know and couldn't gauge their intentions made me very wary that something would happen to me or my things. "Eh, let me fix my rifle, then I'll go sleep in my ship."

Geron gave me a pat on the back, "You came in that Skipray right?" I nodded. "Do you really think you're going to get a quality rest in an oversized fighter? Please just take the room at the station. I promise I will personally make sure both you and your kit are safe. Consider it partial payment for what your old man did for me."

I knew he wasn't going to give in, and the thought of sleeping on a nice cott was appealing. Still, there was something in my gut that screamed that this was a bad move. I sighed and shook my head. "Sorry, Geron. I mean no disrespect to you or your men, but I'll sleep on my ship." I held up a hand to forestall any retort of Geron's. "And don't worry about paying my father back. Just help me with my rifle and you can consider your debt paid."

Geron let out a heavy sigh just as we reached the front of the safety office. "You certainly are as stubborn as your old man, you know that?" He shrugged and gestured toward the spaceport. "Well, get some sleep and I'll see you when you get up."

I nodded. "Thanks, Geron."

"No thanks are necessary Marek." He replied as he entered the station. "Just trying to keep my debts covered."

**Chapter 10**

Not wanting to waste too much time, I only allowed myself to get 5 hours of sleep before I woke up and headed back to the station; which was fine for me because I spent a fitful night, or morning, in this case, haunted by nightmares of me arriving too late to save Mahr'la or of saving her but being rejected by her in the end. So I forced myself to get up, proceeded to refresh myself as best I could, gathered my things and clipped my helmet to my belt before heading out.

It was about 0800 hours local time by the time I reached the station. The sun was out and had long since dried up the last remnants of dew from the cooler evening. I walked into the station and wasn't at all surprised to see Geron sitting behind the front desk with dark circles under his eyes. I shot him a sly grin and chided him, "Don't you ever leave this place?"

Geron returned the grin, "Well maybe I _could_ if a certain Mandalorian hadn't rampaged through the city killing pirates last night." We both chuckled. Behind him, I noticed a subordinate of Geron's glaring at me. He was a young human male, had to be no more than 19 or 20 years old by the looks of him, with a crop of unkempt blonde hair and blue eyes that were alight with a hate filled fire. Not knowing who the individual was, I decided not to mention anything to Geron, but I did make a mental note to watch out for this guy.

I reached up behind my head, grabbed the butt of my rifle, released the magnetic locks and brought the weapon in front of me, cradled in both hands like a parent would cradle an injured child. "So let's see this "shop" of yours shall we?"

Geron smiled even wider as he stood up. He gestured toward the back of the building with his right hand. "This way Marek." He stepped out from behind his desk and called one of his officers over to cover the desk while we worked on my rifle.

We walked through a set of double doors at the rear of the office, which led past a back of holding cells holding various drunkards and malcontents arrested the previous evening. I heard some shouts as we walked past but paid little attention as I was eager to repair my rifle and move on to my next target. At the end of the hall, we reached a heavy dura-steel door that opened to a set of stairs leading downward, a small glow panel lighting the base.

Once down the stairs, I found myself staring at another long hallway with three doors on either side and one door at the very end. Geron gestured to the end of the hall with his left hand. "This way. The shop is through the very last door in front of us.

"What about the rest of these rooms?"

"They are various interrogation and meeting rooms. Nothing for you to worry about."

When we reached the door at the end of the hall, Geron took out a security key card and passed it over a reader to the left side of the door frame. A tone sounded, letting us know it was ok to enter. Geron opened the door and reached inside to turn on the lights before opening the door fully and allowing me to enter.

I took a quick look around and let out a low whistle. The room was a weapon smith's dream. A large workbench was the centerpiece of the room, surrounded by part fabrication machines, armor repair units, ammunition stations, and enough parts to build blasters for a small army. I cautiously walked towards to workbench and unslung my rifle.

"This is a very expensive set up for such a small operation Geron. How did you get all of this?"

Geron gave me a sly grin. "I have an old friend who is a quartermaster in the New Republic military. He also owes me a lot of favors, so he sends things my way every once and a while. My boys may be just backwater hicks, but they are some of the most well-equipped backwater hicks on the planet and maybe even the system."

"With all this kit, I'd think that the Black Skulls would've had a harder time becoming entrenched here."

"Like I told you before, Marek, The Skulls were already well established by the time I got here. I haven't had the time to actually use any of this to get my boys ready to fight off the pirates, but thanks to you, I now have that opportunity." He walked over to the workbench, pulled out two stools and motioned for me to sit, which I did. "Now let's take a look at that rifle."

Geron opened a couple of drawers on the workbench and laid out all of the tools I would need. I started by removing the magnetic clamps and then did a complete field strip of the rifle. I took a look at the circuitry that controlled the flow of energy from the power pack to the blast chamber and shook my head. They were black. I removed the circuit boards and held out for Geron to inspect. "Completely fried."

Geron took a look at the circuit then over to the disassembled rifle. His face scrunched up as he thought. He looked over at me and asked, "You insulated the rifle against the magnets correct?"

I nodded, "My friend, Jett, who installed them, did the insulation."

Geron put the circuits down and held out his hand. "Let me see the screws he used to fasten the magnets to your rifle." I picked them up and handed them to Geron. He grabbed a magnifier and looked the screws over and gave a scrutinizing grunt. He then looked at the rest of the parts of my rifle. He nodded when he completed his assessment. "These screws are your culprit." He announced, picking them back up and handing them to me.

I gave him a sidelong glance while trying to figure out why Geron came to his diagnosis, finally asking, "Why you do say that?"

He handed me the magnifier. "They are the only things that aren't hardened against the magnets. So when you activate the clamps the screws themselves also become magnetized due to their contact. Were you even able to get any shots off?"

I nodded as I looked at the screws through the magnifier to verify Geron's observation. "Yeah, I managed a couple of bursts before I saw a blue flash and a puff of smoke."

Geron nodded. "That'll happen." He got up and walked off to a cabinet on my right and came back with a new circuit board and a spray can. He set them down in front of me. "Here's a new circuit board. It's made to be universal so it should integrate with your rifle no problem."

I grabbed the spray can and looked at the label, "Spray insulation?"

"It'll coat those screws nicely and prevent any further issues." Geron Cocked his head to the side as he looked over my disassemble rifle. "Have you ever thought about adding a fire selection lever? I mean not just between 'stun' and 'kill'."

"You mean between semi-automatic and full auto don't you?"

Geron grinned, "As well as burst fire."

That made me grin savagely, "You bet your shebs I would like that!"

Geron got back up and got the parts we needed and we started to upgrade my rifle. About five minutes in Geron finally asked, "So what has your old man been up to lately?"

I smiled, "Well, let me tell you..."

Over the next few hours, we shared stories while fixing and upgrading my rifle. I explained to Geron that my father worked mostly security jobs now. Enough to keep him active, but also did not require as much running around as he used to do. The jobs he did now were usually longer term, which meant his hours and schedule were a lot more static. I remembered what my father had told me when I had questioned him about taking on what I saw as easy jobs. "First of all, I've been doing this thirty years longer than you so I've earned my stripes, and on top of that, a job is a job."

That made Geron Laugh. His sense of humor seemed chastened though as I related to him details about my upbringing. I explained that by the age of five, I was able to disassemble, clean, and re-assemble just about any rifle or blaster pistol put in front of me. I started my physical training when I was 6, which included lessons in hand to hand combat, as well as a collection of beat downs by my father. Geron seemed almost repulsed that a father would intentionally cause harm to his son. I explained that, while it obviously hurt, my father never did it with malice in his mind and that his sole aim was to prepare me for the real world. "And in our line of work," he would say, "most folk we run into won't care if your 6 or 26, they'll beat you just the same."

By the time I was 10, I had been accompanying my father on hunts for a few years and had even made my first kill defending our ship, a fact that made Geron's jaw drop in shock. He asked me how I dealt with killing someone when I was so young. I told him that I really didn't have time to think about it given the situation we were in. And afterward, the fact that I had helped to protect my family was enough to soothe any guilt I felt at taking a life.

After giving Geron a rundown of a typical Mandalorian upbringing, I changed the subject to my father and his service during the Galactic Civil War. I was surprised to find out that my buir had changed very little since fighting in the war. He was outwardly quiet, letting his actions do most of the speaking for him. He was also known to be very stubborn, a trait which he still has blossomed fully in me. According to Geron, there were many times when the unit they were attached to was trying to hold some piece of real estate or another, and my father's stubborn refusal to abandon his position was the only thing that kept them from being overrun.

I beamed with pride hearing the tales of my father's past exploits and was about to press Geron for more details of my father's life, like where and how he got a tattoo of his favorite holo-comic character when we were interrupted by a knock at the doorway. I turned around to see the young officer who had been glaring laser bolts at me earlier with a look of incredulous disbelief.

The officer gave Geron a smart salute which the superior office casually returned.

"At ease Patrolman ." Geron gestured towards me. "Patrolman, I'd like you to meet Marek Vulen; a Mandalorian and son of a very old friend of mine. Marek, this is Patrolman Doval Farseen."

I nodded at Doval. "Nice to meet you, Patrolman."

Without even acknowledging me the young officer shifted his stance to a proper "at ease" with legs shoulder-width apart and hands lightly clasped behind his back. The upward tilt of his head, clenched jaw and overall tension that was just pouring off of him said he was anything but "at ease".

"Sir, permission to speak freely?" he asked through pursed lips

Geron nodded, "Of course. Speak your mind."

The officer's eyes darted over to me and back again, "Umm…sir, I was hoping to speak with you in private."

Geron waved off Doval's concern, "Nonsense, as I just said, Marek here is the son of one of my oldest friends and comrades. You can say whatever you have to say in front of him."

Doval's jaw began to visibly twitch with anger, showing his mounting frustration. "Sir, I respectfully take issue you with your 'guest'."

"In what ways do you take issue?" Geron responded with a look on his face that was a mixture of amusement, anger, and surprise.

"First of all, sir, you have nonmilitary personnel in an off-limits area, namely our armory; that alone is an egregious breach of protocol. Never mind the fact that he just killed 20 individuals in cold blood, and left us open to possible retaliation from the pirates." The man was on a self-righteous tirade and I knew I wasn't going to be able to interrupt to defend myself so I let him continue. "Scum like him and his ilk embody EVERYTHING the New Republic stands against. Furthermore..."

"That's enough, Patrolman."

"But sir, I…"

Geron shot out of his seat, "And I said ENOUGH!" He turned and looked at me. "Marek, would you like to respond to Patrolman Farseen?"

"Sure." I hopped off my seat and casually walked up to the indignant officer, stopping just shy of an arm's length away. I did this for two reasons: first, I wanted to show this kid that I definitely wasn't afraid of him, secondly, I wanted to get a visual measure of the man. He stood about a good head taller than me, though his lanky frame did very little to intimidate me. His blue eyes held a fiery look of anger that I had seen far too often. It left me with only one obvious question to ask.

"Who died?"

Doval looked visibly shocked and rocked backward as if I had just punched him in the face. "W-what do you mean?"

I scoffed at him. "What, you think you're the first person who ever held a grudge against the Mando'ade? Do you think this is the first time someone has reacted towards me as you are right now? For you to have such a vehement reaction to someone you have only just met, tells me that it is not me per se that you are angry at. The only time people react this way to me is when they have been hurt somehow by 'Rampaging Mandalorians', which resulted in either the destruction or loss of property or the death of a loved one. So, while I am making only an educated guess as to the root of your anger towards me, my question stands. Who died?"

A couple of tense seconds passed as Doval seemed to struggle to contain his emotions. When he finally spoke his answer was meek and trembling. "My younger sister," Doval responded with lowered head and clenched jaw. I could see his jaw muscles twitching. This man was barely keeping it together. "About 5 years ago I went with my parents and my sister to Endor. My father, as a biologist, wanted to study the flora and fauna, while my mother just wanted the challenge of living away from 'civilized society'." He took a deep breath, steadying himself before continuing. "My parents had been gone for 3 days foraging for food when the attack came. The Mandalorians burst into our dwelling without warning and held both my sister and me at gun point!" Tears began to well up in his eyes. "They tied me down and forced me to watch as they…ravaged my sister. There was nothing I could do except scream for them to stop. They laughed at me and kicked me in the face." He gulped for air as tears were freely streaming down his face." After they did what they wanted to with my sister the animals slit her throat, robbed us blind, and simply walked out! They cared nothing for what they had done or who they hurt!"

His gaze shifted to Geron, "So don't try telling me all about Mandalorian nobility and honor because I've seen with my own eyes what they do. And now, you actually want me to be 'nice' and 'civil' with one of these beasts?! No thank you!" He turned to me, his gaze trying to bore into my head. "I'd rather see you arrested, tried and killed for the monster you are!"

I looked at him with an impassive stare while I contemplated how to respond to this kid. He was obviously hurting, but he also needed to hear the truth, the mando way. "I'm sorry for your loss, lieutenant, I honestly am. True Mandalorians would never hurt or kill an innocent unless it was unavoidable, so my guess is that you ran into some Death Watch stragglers. That being said, you and your parent's did allow this to happen."

Doval's eyes went wide with a mix of shock and rage. "How the hell can you say that?!"

I shrugged, "Well obviously if your parents had trained you and your sister better, and had prepared your dwelling better, and had been more proficient in training you, you would have had a better chance of actually protecting yourself and your sister might still be alive."

"What was I supposed to do?" He screamed. "They had a blaster TO MY HEAD!"

"You should have fought back!" I yelled in response. "I would rather die trying to defend my sister than to live the rest of my life in shame knowing that I sat and watched her be defiled and killed because I was more worried about my own life than hers!"

An inferno of rage filled Doval's eyes and he charged me with a feral scream, his right arm cocked back to deliver one wallop of a punch; A punch that never landed as I had shifted into a fighting stance as soon as he began his charge. I shifted to the left just as he threw his punch and caught him by the wrist. I quickly twisted his hand and pinned it behind his back. I took my right foot and hooked it in front of his left leg and pulled back with my leg while pushing forward with my upper body. Doval and I started to go down and I had to shift my weight to the right to avoid smacking Doval's head into the workbench. We landed on the floor with a "THUD"

I quickly repositioned my so my left knee was pressing down on the young officer's neck while I maintained a tight grip on his right wrist. After another 30 seconds of squirming, Doval finally relented. I looked down to the back of his head.

"Are we done now?"

"Get off of me!"

"I said, 'Are we done now?'"

There were a couple of tense seconds before he responded, "Yes, you win, now let me up!"

"I will, but first I need to say two things: First, once again I am truly sorry for your loss. However, you need to take a good look in the mirror and decide if it's me you're angry with or yourself for not protecting your sister, remembering that I had NOTHING to do with it. Second, and you should take special heed when I say the next time you come at me like that, I will put you down and I promise you that you will NOT be getting back up."

With that, I get off of Doval. The patrolman quickly got up and ran out of the room without bothering to be dismissed.

Geron gave me a cautious look. "That was a little bit harsh don't you think?"

"No, I don't," I answered deadpan. "The galaxy is filled pain, death, and misery. You know that as well as I. Besides, when have you ever known a Mandalorian to parse his words or worry about who he _might_ offend?" I turned back to the workbench and finished putting my assault rifle back together. I smiled at how beautiful a piece of equipment this rifle truly was. It had passed through three generations of my family, and I felt that by completing the upgrades that I had, I had only enriched not only the history of the rifle but the legacy of my family. Brandishing the weapon, I turned to Geron with a smile. "Got anywhere I can test this beauty out?"

Geron returned my smile and walked over to a large trunk a few meters away. He returned with a handful of power packs and gestured towards the door. "Come, on." He said, "Let's make sure that rifle is in top form, then I have few extra goodies to give you, and then we can get you on your way and one step closer to your goal."

**Chapter 11**

The planet Irith, located in Hutt space. I _hate_ the Hutts. I hate the Hutts and I hate dealing with them. I know that a lot of my Mandalorian brethren have taken jobs with the Hutts because they pay rather well, and let's face it; if you're working for a Hutt, you're always going to have work to do. Personally, I've had far too many dealings with the Hutts in my travels, mostly when working with my father, where I've been stabbed in the back by them to ever make me want to work for them. Irith itself wasn't that bad of a planet, as far as Hutt controlled planets go. It had only been settled by the Hutts in the past 300 years, and as such and not been completely Hutt-formed into a hazy, polluted swampland. For now, it was a temperate planet with standard seasons and climates. It had about 2 dozen population centers and I headed toward the largest since that is where I assumed the local Hutt Lord laid himself out.

The city, Shoonda, was rather modest in terms of size and population, although it did fit the clichéd description of most planets/cities controlled by Hutts; seedy bars, even seedier casinos, and hotels, where the scum of the galaxy came to get lost and/or rip someone off. As such it had a lot of winding streets with plenty of dark allies and shadows, the kind often found in mystery and suspense thriller holos.

After finding an abandoned docking berth that I liked, I landed, secured my ship, put my bucket on, and headed out to gather information. My first task: finding who the local Hutt in charge was and where he billeted himself. That was a surprisingly easy task, as the first denizen I asked was able to point me about 20 blocks down to the tallest casino in the city. I even got the Hutt's name: Grando. At first I thought the name was a joke but was proven wrong when I gazed up at the bold lettering above the main entrance to the casino that read "Grando's Palace" which was yet another cliché as I have found out that a Hutt will name just about any building they are in a "palace."

I hailed a taxi and within a couple of minutes, I was standing in front of the casino. It was a gaudy monstrosity of a building with plenty of neon signs describing the various pleasures to be had within. I, however, had one goal in mind, and I used it to put a purposeful swagger to my gait as stalked towards the doors. I walked in through the main entrance which opened up to the main gambling pits. The room itself had a relatively low ceiling, with barely enough lights to illuminate the room. A smoky haze hung in the air and the place stank of sweat, spice, and desperation. I made my way through the pits and the huddled gamblers and came to a stop at a large set of doors which I assumed led to Grando's main audience chamber. My suspicions were proven correct when a shorter than average Rodian moved to block my way.

"Hold it." He said with a raised hand. "No one gets in to see Grando the Hutt without an appointment."

"It's urgent," I replied. "I need to get some information from Grando."

"Yeah," he scoffed, "I bet you do." He crossed his arms across his chest. "Look, like I said, if you don't have an appointment for an audience, you're not getting…"

My armored fist smashing into his face cut off the last of his sentence and he dropped to the floor like a wet bantha rug. I don't know why, but for some reason, hitting a Rodian is almost as fun for me as taking the head off of a 3PO unit. With a smile on my face, I stepped over the unconscious Rodian, pushed the doors open and walked into the main audience chamber. The room itself was in complete contrast to the gambling area. High vaulted ceilings brilliantly lit with a multitude of gaudy chandeliers. There were full-service bars to the left and right. Off to the right in the back, an all Bith band played while drunken lackeys of the great Hutt Lord danced clumsily around. Tables were randomly placed about the room, where gangsters sat, ate, drank, and gambled. My eyes were mostly drawn to the center of the back wall of the room where on a gilded dais sat the largest pile of Hutt puss I had ever seen: Grando.

I've heard that Hutts can live for two or three millennia, and if that was the case, Grando must've been pushing 3,000. His skin was gaunt and pale, with wrinkles deepening the already enormous folds of fat covering his body. A constant stream of slimy green foam cascaded from the corners of his gigantic maw of a mouth. His bulbous eyes turned into scrutinizing slits as he examined the unannounced guest to his private chambers.

Without introducing myself I confidently strode across the room to the dais. Everyone else stopped dead in their tracks to stare at me as I went as if trying to divine my intent by studying my movements. I doubt any of them succeeded. I stopped about 10 feet away from the dais as Grando's translator droid, a rusted, aged, and squeaking 3PO unit, imposed itself between me and his master. The droid spoke with a deep masculine intonation.

"His high lordship, the awesome Grando the Hutt, demands to know who you are and why you dared to disturb his inner sanctum without an invitation."

I looked passed the droid, secretly wanting to blast him to bits, and stared straight at Grando, tilting my helmeted head up so there was no mistaking who I was actually talking to. "Name's Marek Vulen. I apologize for my abrupt entrance, but I have very important business to attend to and your doorman was slowing me down." I jerked a thumb back towards the door. "He's taking a nap on the other side of the door."

Grando looked to his right, to a couple of lackey's standing by the bar and nodded. The gangsters quickly down the drinks in their hands and scurried off to check on their associate. Grando mumbled something in Huttese and his droid translated that "You still have not said _why_ you are here."

I reached into one of my belt pouches pulled out the now frayed and almost charred pirate's patch I had first picked up when Mahr'la and I had met. I held it up to Grando. "I came here to hunt vermin. Are you in any need of an exterminator?"

Grando grunted as he mulled over what I said. His droid fidgeted nervously while waiting for his master's response. I slowly slid my right hand towards my holstered blaster pistol, anticipating the worst. My pulse began to increase as I felt the eyes of everyone in the room, shift to me. My fingers started to tickle the grip of the weapon, my muscles tensed up, readying itself for a fight. My gaze never left Grando, who seemed to be studying me. His piercing gaze was directed at my armored form; as if he could see through my beskar'gam and see the man underneath.

Finally, he began to slowly nod his head. He dismissed his translator droid with a wave of his hand, looked directly at me and spoke to me in basic.

"You are very brave and gutsy little Mandalorian. I like that. But then, your people are known for that aren't they."

"We are at that," I replied, feeling a wave of relief wash over me.

"What, may I ask, is your interest in hunting the Black Skulls? Grando crossed his arms, as much as he could, in front of his chest as he waited for my answer.

I knew I had to choose my words carefully as I didn't want to give up my true reason for my hunt. So I decided to skirt the issue by saying, "They took something from me. I mean to hunt them down until I find what they stole."

Grando nodded his bulbous head as if he had come to some great revelation based on what I had just said. "Ahhh, something _important_ to you then, eh?"

I nodded in response, "You could say that." I crossed my arms in from of my chest and began tapping my foot impatiently. "So I'm requesting any information you have on their whereabouts. I can pay you, of course."

The Hutt laughed, "Oh I'm sure you will, Mandalorian, I'm sure you will. There is one _slight _problem with your request."

My gut knotted, "And what would that be?"

Grando gestured to his right and left and a group of his surliest lackeys stopped what they were doing and began to close around. The knot in my stomach got tighter as Grando announced that, "The problem with your request is that I happen to _employ_ the Black Skulls as my security detail. We have a nice agreement; they get to use my palace as a base and I get a healthy cut of whatever they take."

I nodded, trying to act casual. I mentally kicked myself for missing the fact that Grando had addressed the Black Skulls by name when I showed him the patch, meaning he obviously knew who they were. That they actually _worked_ for him added a whole new set of complications to my mission. "That _is_ a problem."

A couple of pirates of to my right took that as an 'ok' to move in on me. Grando stopped them by holding up his hand. "However," he stated, "things have gotten rather boring around here lately and I find myself in the need for some entertainment." He looked to his right and motioned for a large but skinny Falleen to come forward. "This is Ti'bar Zalkor, the leader of the Black Skulls on this planet. Here's the deal: Ti'bar, choose your best fighter. He will fight our Mandalorian guest here. If your man wins, you can do with the Mandalorian what you like. If he loses, however, you give our guest whatever information he asks."

Ti'bar, who had been facing me, whipped around to face the Hutt. "I can't agree to that," he responded barely controlling his anger. "He could get information that may very well bring down our entire operation. Or have you forgotten how much money we bring in?"

Grando's eyes narrowed and he spoke in a slow deliberate manner, and added in a dose of venom to his voice to make sure that Ti'bar knew he did _not_ like to be disrespected by "the hired help". "No, Ti'bar, it is _you_ who have forgotten who it was that _allowed_ you and your then pitiful group to house themselves in _my_ palace. While you have proven yourselves capable enough to be my security, never forget that while _I_ employ _you_, I also have many others at my disposal, making you and your group ultimately expendable."

Then, as if someone had flicked on a switch, Grando's expression changed to a more jovial one or as jovial as a Hutt can look. "Now," he said with a clap of his hands. "Now that that's settled, let's get back to business. Ti'bar, who will face our Mandalorian friend here?"

Still fuming, Ti'bar turned back around and looked over his compatriots, trying to decide which one would be best suited to defeating me. His mouth curled up into a twisted maniacal grin as his gazed landed on someone who was standing behind me. He reached out with a talon-like finger. "Grrohr." He called out and motioned with his outstretched finger. "Come here and show this puny bounty hunter, why the Black Skulls are feared."

Grrohr came forward, slamming into my left shoulder, knocking me a bit off balance, and quickly spun around to face me. I lifted my head to look up at a Weequay a head and a half taller than me. His arms and chest were rippling with muscles. His wrinkled face had a look of grim determination. _I didn't know they made Weequays that big!_ I thought to myself. He was relatively unarmored, not that he really needed it, with only one plate that covered his chest and abs. No matter, I had taken down foes bigger than me before and I knew I could do it again, I hoped.

Grando clapped his hands again, "Now, first thing's first. This will be an unarmed contest, so please remove any weapons you have." He looked directly at me, "That means your helmet too Mandalorian."

"How do I know that you'll give me my stuff back if I win?"

Grando scoffed, "You don't. But seeing as you really don't have a choice in the matter…"

All around me, blasters cleared holsters and were all aimed in my direction. I decided to make light of the situation to try and calm my nerves. "Well when you put it that way, how can I refuse?" I casually pulled my blaster pistol out of its holster and handed it to a Quarren. I did the same with my assault rifle.

Grrohr also began removing his weapons, starting with a snub nosed pistol. Next, he removed a myriad of knives and other blades making it obvious that he was very adept at, and probably preferred close quarters combat. After removing his weapons he began to stretch his fingers until the knuckles cracked. It was an overt attempt to intimidate me, but I simply chuckled and shook my head as I encrypted the data in my helmet, locked it down, slowly popped the seals, and eased it off my head and handed it off as well.

Grrohr walked up to me until he was mere inches away. He snorted as an evil smirk slowly etched its way onto his face. "You're dead little man."

I returned his smirk with a cocky one of my own. "We'll see mersheb, we'll see.

Grrohr twisted his head back over his left shoulder to Ti'bar. "Hey boss, how do you want me to prepare this appetizer?" He joked, eliciting a laugh from the entire room. With his attention away from me, I knew this was my one chance to catch the big Weequay off guard, and if I could do that, I had a better chance of winning this fight. I grasped my left fist in my right hand and as Grrohr turned back towards me I slammed both fists like a club into the left side of his face turning it to the side. I quickly followed up with another blow to his right side, again connecting. I swung again on his left, but any surprise advantage I had burned away as he caught both of my hands in his right. A feral grin spread across his lips. _Osik!_ This was going to hurt.

His right foot kicked out, catching me in the midsection not once, but five times. He followed up with four punches to my face, bloodying my nose and splitting my lip wide open. He finished his attack by grabbing my waist with his left hand, grabbing my collar with his right, raising me over his head and hurling me across the room and straight into a table. The table splintered as I hit and I felt the wind get knocked out of me.

I quickly recovered my breath and started to try to pick myself up. I rose up to my knees and looked over at Grrohr. He stood in the same spot he was in when he threw me, arms crossed in front of his chest, laughing. I now knew I had to get this big lug off his feet if I had any chance at beating him. I slowly got to my feet and cautiously approached the hulking Weequay.

"Had enough little Mandalorian?" Grrohr teased.

"Just getting warmed up." I retorted, wiping my lip on my forearm, blood smearing the blue armor plates.

Grrohr uncrossed his arms and took a fight stance, his left foot leading. I mirrored his stance and we slowly began to circle each other. We traded a few jabs that we each easily dodged as we gauged each other's strengths and weaknesses. While Grrohr's punches carried a LOT of weight and power behind them, he was very slow to throw them. I, on the other hand, had an advantage in the speed of my attacks, while the power of them could never match Grrohr's. This meant that I could not allow myself to get sloppy, a difficult challenge as I had already taken a pretty good beating when I was thrown across the room.

After about 30 seconds of trading jabs, I lashed out with my right foot, catching Grrohr his unarmored outer left thigh. He grimaced in pain and lashed back with a series of punches that I was easily able to dodge. Well, all except the last one; the last two fingers on his right hand connected with my right cheek, and still had enough power to turn my head slightly. I lashed out with my right foot again and again caught him in his left outer thigh, causing it to buckle slightly. He danced back, slightly favoring his left leg.

Suddenly, in my mind's eye, the makeshift ring in which we fought became a dejarik board, with Grrohr and myself as the remain 2 pieces, shifting and searching for that perfect opening, that finishing move that would win the round. Grrohr shifted his stance so that he was leading with his right foot, an obvious attempt to shield his weakened left leg. He threw another series of punches that I was able to either dodge or deflect. The ones I deflected bounced off my armored forearms but still had enough power to hurt.

I started shifting around to my opponent's left, trying to get an angle on his wounded leg. I made several attempts to strike, but Grrohr was able to pull back, making me miss my mark. My opening came as he threw his next series starting with two short jabs from his right hand and following up with a murderous cross that, had it landed, would have knocked me back and probably would have ended the fight. I ducked and stepped to the right, his punch barely missing my left ear. Without a moment to lose, I struck. My right foot flicked out and caught Grrohr's left leg again, causing it to buckle further. I kicked him in the same spot again, causing him to sink to his knee as the muscle gave out, his back facing me.

When I saw him go down, I knew I had only one chance to act. I rushed forward and leaped onto Grrohr's back. I snaked my right arm around his neck and grasped my right wrist in my left hand and proceeded to pull back on the Weequay's neck. Grrohr's hands went to my arm and he flopped onto his side, taking me with him. We landed with a thud almost making me lose my grip. I knew I needed to lock in the rear naked choke I had begun to apply in order for it to actually work so I tried to wrap my legs around his. The problem with this was that my opponent was so much bigger than me that my heels barely reached the inside of his thighs. Still, I dug my heels in as hard as I could and, tightening my grip on my right wrist, pulled back With every ounce of strength I could muster.

Grrohr began to thrash around in an attempt to dislodge me from his back. His hands clawed at my arm as if he was trying to rip through my right forearm plate. Still, I held on tight, pulling back with everything I had, knowing that the alternative was to surrender and that meant an end to the quest to find Mahr'la and most likely the end of my life. Little by little, Grrohr's movements began to die down as the blood supply to his brain was choked off.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the thrashing and clawing stopped. I held on for a few seconds more just to make sure Grrohr was out. I then untangled myself from his limp body and slowly stood up, intending to shake out my limbs to get my circulation going and to loosen up my muscles. What I ended up doing was stumbling to my right and actually leaning on one of Grando's thugs as my legs had apparently forgotten how to support my body for a moment. I quickly regained my composure, lest I show any further weakness, and took a casual stance with my feet shoulder width apart and my arms crossed in front of my chest.

After a few seconds, I felt an eerie silence fall over the room. By the looks on everyone's face, I gathered that I was clearly not expected to win this fight. Their eyes began to dart from me to Grando and back again, probably trying to guess at what the Hutt would do to me, and possibly try to anticipate my reaction. A reaction that I knew would never come as I was in no condition to fight back. My body was drained and as it was I was barely holding myself upright. Still, I was determined not to show any further weakness on my part.

I stared directly into Grando's bulbous eyes and he looked right back at me. His eyes turned to slits as if he was studying me. The tension in the room was palpable as we all waited for Grando's decision on whether or not he liked the match and would therefore let me leave alive. Then, a smirk tugged at the right side of his mouth and he let out a snort. His fatty folds started to tremble and a low laugh began to emanate from his maw; a laugh that quickly picked up to the ever familiar and annoying mix of "Oh, ho ho ho ho ho's" and "Ah, ha ha ha ha ha's" that the Hutts seemed to have mastered. The rest of his cronies soon began to laugh along with him, still unsure of what was going to happen next, but still following their boss the way all lackeys do. Grando eventually stopped laughed and motioned to the Quarren who had taken my kit. The lackey approached me, his tentacles on the right side of his face curled up into what I believe was a smirk as he handed me my things.

"That helmet of yours has some good encryption." He stated. "I'm the best slicer in this sector and couldn't even begin to crack it."

I took my helmet and eased back onto my head unlocking everything. "Why do you think I encrypt the data in the first place?" I next took my assault rifle and attached it to my back plate. Lastly, I took my blaster pistol and put it back in its holster. I left the locking strap unfastened, hoping I wouldn't need to use it, but also wanting to show Grando and the Black Skulls that I was still ready for a fight.

To the right of Grando, Ti'bar stood staring at me with a look of utter disbelief. This obviously was not the outcome he had expected. Very slowly a terrifying realization came to his face as the ramifications of my victory began to dawn on him. His muscles tensed and it was obvious from his body language that he did not want to turn around to face his boss. Too late, realized I was looking at him and quickly stiffened his spine and set his face into an iron mask.

Grando clapped slowly three times then gestured out to me with both arms. "Very well fought little Mandalorian, very well fought indeed. I am surprised by the outcome, and this is one of the few types of surprises I actually tolerate. I always enjoy the brutal ingenuity of your people and you have not disappointed me. You are indeed a credit to your people and I applaud you." He then turned to Ti'bar. "A deal is a deal Ti'bar. The Mandalorian won the match, so you are to answer whatever questions he asks truthfully. If you need privacy you may talk at the bar." With that, he motioned to his Bith band, who started playing again, while the rest of the patrons returned to their seats and drinks.

I looked over to Ti'bar who was, by this point, seething. His muscles again tensed and his eyes darted back and forth as if he was weighing his options. He looked up to the ceiling and then shouted, "NO!" The music immediately stopped and everyone turned back to the dais. Ti'bar, barely controlling his rage, turned to face Grando. "No, Grando. I will NOT answer any questions from this Mandalorian scumbag! And I am sick and tired of taking orders from you, you overgrown pile of wasted Hutt puss! It is the Black Skulls that protect you, the Black Skulls that make you wealthy, and it is the Black Skulls that will be your doom!"

If Ti'bar had been paying attention, he would have noticed that Grando wasn't upset by his words. He wasn't quaking with fear or anger at the betrayal by his head of security. Instead, the old Hutt looked calm, even bemused by the display. I however, moved my hand to my blaster, ready for anything. A couple of Ti'bar's men attempted to step forward and quiet their commander down, but the Falleen was on a roll.

Ti'bar spun back towards his men and lifted a fist to the sky. "Black Skulls, it is the time we claimed our legacy on this planet and show the galaxy that not even a Hutt is safe from our might! Kill the Hutt and take the bucket head prisoner. He will make a fine gift to our glorious leader. It is time we claim the planet Irith for the Black Skulls!"

Nobody moved. I kept my hand on my blaster and began to inch it out of its holster, just in case, but I was slowly coming to a revelation about the relationship between TI'bar and his men. It was a revelation that Ti'bar was even slower to believe.

"What are you standing there for?!" He screamed. "This is our chance! This is what we've been planning to do since we got here! The time is now!" He stabbed a finger toward the Hutt. "KILL HIM!"

Grando began to laugh, causing Ti'bar to spin around to face the Hutt. Finally, it hit him. He slowly turned back to his men. "You let him buy you off didn't you?" He asked, addressing the entire room. "When?"

A scrawny human stepped forward. "Not too long after we got here boss." He looked truly ashamed and deeply apologetic. "You said yourself when we came here, 'Go where the money is.' And I'm sorry boss but Grando just has a lot more money than you do or ever will."

Ti'bar lowered his head as if in shame. He had played the exact wrong hand at exactly the wrong time. He was caught out in the open with very few options and unfortunately, every one of those options meant certain death. If it were me in that situation, I would probably throw down a flash bang and a smoke grenade and make a mad dash for the exit, hopefully before anyone could fire on me. Ti'bar took the dumber, more suicidal approach. He lowered his head as if thinking, his eyes darting back and forth as he appeared to be weighing the odds.

Then, after a tense 10 seconds, he slowly raised his head and said, "If I am doomed to fall here, then so are you!" He pulled his blaster pistol from its holster, raising it as he spun to face Grando, obviously intending to take the Hutt out before being killed himself. If he succeeded, the rest of Grando's men would certainly gun him down, which meant that my only lead to the Black Skulls next base would die with him. Faster than even I thought I was capable, I pulled my own blaster pistol and fired a shot from the hip as Ti'bar turned. The blaster bolt sizzled through the air and struck the pirate in his gun wielding right hand, forcing him to drop the weapon. Instantly, five of Grando's men were on top of Ti'bar, restraining his hands behind his back with binders and severely beating him in the process. Grohhr, who had woken up by this time, stormed up to his former boss, pulled out a knife, and prepared himself to slice his former boss up good.

I couldn't let Ti'bar die or get so mutilated that he couldn't talk so I holstered my pistol as I rushed forward and slammed my right shoulder into the giant Weequay, knocking him off balance. "Wait!" I shouted bringing the room to a complete halt. "This man still owes me information as per my deal with Grando. I will have it before you exact whatever punishment you have in store for him." Grando's men turned to him and the Hutt simply nodded his approval. Ti'bar was released and the once proud Faleen fell to his knees, blood pouring from a broken nose and bruises welling up on his cheeks. His head hung low again, this time in shame.

I reached back to my assault rifle, hit the release on the clamps holding it to my back plate and brought the weapon in front on me slowly. I caught his chin under the barrel and lifted his head up so he was staring at me, then leaned forward so that my mouth was near his ear. I turned down the external output on my helmet so my voice came as a whisper.

"I don't want to make this any more difficult on you than it already is. Just tell me where the Black Skulls' next base is and I'll grant you a quick death."

"Why should I tell you anything?"

"Because you've overplayed your hand. Because I am a man of my word. But most importantly, because I am the only thing standing between you and a long and painful death, which Grando is sure to enjoy." I paused for effect. I actually felt a bit sorry for the guy in a "by the Manda I hope I never end up in a situation like this" sort of way. "Just tell me what I need to know and it'll all be over."

Ti'bar breathed heavily through his nose 3 times and then lightly nodded. "Ok then. I'll tell you, but you _have to kill me_. I would rather die at the hands of an honorable warrior such as yourself than to be tortured and broken by this rabble."

I thought about arguing with him calling me a scumbag one second and then an honorable warrior a moment later, but I figured that Ti'bar was about to die so what did it matter what he called me. "We have a deal."

He took a deep breath and whispered one word. Then, having gotten the information I needed I straightened up, aimed my rifle putting the barrel in his left eye, and pulled the trigger. Ti'bar's head jerked back and then his body crumpled to the floor. Satisfied I reattached my rifle to my back. The entire room just stood there in complete silence, jaws open in shock. Casually, I turned back to Grando and bowed.

"Thank you for your hospitality, your grace," I said trying to be subtly sarcastic. "Now if there is nothing else, I shall take my leave of you." With that, I turned and began to walk towards the exit. I hadn't taken more than 3 steps before Grando yelled out to me.

"Not so fast little Mandalorian!" Grando bellowed, making me stop dead in my tracks. He clapped his hands twice and two of his men moved in front me, blocking me from the exit.

I slowly turned back to face Grando, taking stock of the mood of the room as I turned. Grando's men, clearly over the shock of Ti'bar's death, had looks on their faces that ran from anger to devilish amusement. Not wanting to give any advantages I tried to appear calm, even casual, as I face the Hutt. I hooked my thumbs in my belt and began to play with the utility pouches as if it was an absently minded reflex. Inside, however, my heart was racing, thumping so loudly in my chest that I could feel the pulse from head to toe. I knew, however, that I couldn't let myself get distracted by nerves and used the nervous energy I was feeling to fuel my focus.

"Where do you think you are going?" Grando asked. "Do you think you can just waltz into my palace, kill my head of security and just leave?"

"Your 'head of security' just tried to kill you," I responded. "And since I got the information I came for, and took out a threat to you, I figure we're about even. Thus, I take my leave of you."

Grando raised a finger, "Ahh, but I have also allowed you to live thus far, so in fact, I end up with you owing me."

I blanched. The sheer gall it took to make that leap in logic left me sick to my stomach. This was why I hated working with Hutts; they have the minds of negotiators, con artists, and any other low life swindler. Everything they do works back towards one single theme: How can I turn this to my advantage? I was seething, but also amused that Grando was arrogant enough to think that I owed him, simply because I was breathing in his presence. I kept playing absent mindedly with the pouches on my belt, my index fingers lazily digging into and playing with my mini smoke grenades and flashbangs. I knew what I had to do to get out of there and I also knew my only chance was to try what I thought Ti'bar should have done and throw my smoke grenade and flash bang and attempt to bully my way out. Still, I was slightly intrigued as to what Grando had in store for me so I kept the conversation going.

"So what do I 'owe' you?"

Grando gave me a devilish grin, "You killed my head of security, which means, you will take his place."

I should have known that was coming. I chuckled. "Thanks, but no thanks Grando. As I said when I came in, I have important personal business to take care of and now that I have what I came for, I really do need to be on my way."

"No one refuses me little Mandalorian," Grando replied, his face distorting into a deep frown. "You will do as I say, or I will have you taken into custody, I will have your family and friends hunted down and killed before you, and make you beg me to kill you before it's all over."

"Huh," I grunted while nodding knowingly. "That would seem to complicate things then wouldn't it?" With the thumb and forefinger of my left hand I grasped a mini smoke grenade, and with my right, I grabbed a mini flash bang. I was going to have to be quick about my next actions. My muscles began to tense and everything began to seem to shrink in around me. I took a deep breath and pulled my fingers out of my pouches and let my hands fall to my side, palming the grenades. I tilted my head up and shifted it from side to side as if I was thinking. What I was really doing was turning on my light and sound dampeners so I wouldn't be as affected by the flash bang as everyone else in the room. After a couple of seconds, I finally said, "You know, I've thought about it, and I am definitely going to refuse your 'offer'."

The Hutt scowled. "I wasn't asking. Now you will kneel before me, or I will make you kneel."

The men around me began to close in. If I was going to act it had to be now before they pulled their weapons. "I'd like to comply Grando, but you forgot one thing."

"And what is that little Mandalorian?"

"You're going to have to catch me." As I said the words I activated the grenades and threw them to the floor in front of me then immediately turned and began to run to the doors. All around me people dove for cover as they had no idea what it was that I had thrown. I had taken 2 steps towards the door when the grenades went off. The two guards who were blocking me from the door were so dazed that I was able to easily bowl between them, knocking them both down. As I ran, I reached to my back with my right hand, grabbed my assault rifle, hit the release, and brought the weapon to my front.

A few more steps brought me to the doors to the casino floor, which a twi'lek had begun to open when he heard the commotion caused by my exit. His eyes went wide as he saw me, and his left hand went to his blaster on his hip, but before he even began to pull the weapon, I swept the butt of my rifle up, catching him in the chin and knocking him backward into the casino pit. Two blaster bolts to the chest ensured he wouldn't be getting back up. From behind me, I could hear Grando coughing and shouting orders to his guards. Yeah, it was definitely time to go.

I turned my head to the right as two more guards, a human and a gamorrean, heard my blaster shots and the commotion from the ballroom and came running to see what the problem was. They stopped short when he saw me and drew their weapons. I wasted no time; I ran straight into the gambling pits, with guards following close behind me. I weaved between tables, chairs, and bodies, trying to get to the exit. As I passed one table, I reached out with my left hand, grabbed a handful of credit chits and flung them over my shoulder. This set off a near riot as the casino's patrons leaped from their seats and starting trampling each other to get at the chips. This forced Grando's guards to make a choice, catch me, or stop people from making off with millions of credits.

I broke out of the pits and wasted no time sprinting towards the front doors where a single human stood between me and freedom. He wasn't standing for long as I raised my rifle, switched my fire selector to "burst fire" and peppered him with blaster bolts. I pushed his falling body aside and burst through the doors. Now all I had to do was commandeer suitable transport, get to the spaceport and get off this rock to my next destination. There was only one problem; by some weird cosmic coincidence, the streets were completely devoid of traffic. While there were still a good number of people walking up and down the sidewalks, I couldn't see a single speeder, swoop bike, or hover truck. This meant that I was going to have to hoof it to my ship, which also meant that Grando's thugs were going to most likely beat me there, which meant I was going to have a lengthy firefight on my hands. It was a firefight that, with my current physical condition, I would have been very likely to lose.

I didn't have time to dwell on that prospect, as I turned to my right and began running down the sidewalk. I got 2 blocks down when a black speeder came to an abrupt stop in front of me, its engines screaming with the sudden deceleration. I raised my rifle, ready to shower the vehicle with blaster fire when the passenger door slid open and a familiar voice called out.

"Marek, get in!"

"Jett?" I leaned forward cautiously and peered into the family sized speeder to see my best friend sitting behind the wheel. "What in the black hells are you doing here?"

"No time to explain, just get in!"

I was about to protest when four blaster bolts sizzled over my head. I quickly climbed into the speeder and slammed the door shut. Jett jammed his foot down on the accelerator, slamming me back into my seat as the speed leaped forward.

Jett shot a quick glance at me. "Where to?"

I quickly took out my data pad and, after bringing up a map of the area with my ship's location bookmarked, I handed it to Jett. "My ship is in a deserted docking berth. You can drop me off there and then get to your ship and get out of here."

Jett shook his head as he took a sharp left. "Nope, I'm coming with you ner'vod."

"What about your ship?"

Jett juked to the right almost coming up onto the sidewalk as blaster bolts flashed past the speeder. Grando's men had obviously caught up to us.

"The ship I came in was stolen, to begin with so I'm better off ditching it." He took a sharp left, causing me to be slammed against the passenger door. I glared at Jett through my helmet. He quickly turned his head to me and, even though covered with his own helmet, I could tell he was smirking. "Besides I figure you're going to need all the help you can get to fight these guys and get Mahr'la back."

Blaster bolts sizzled over the roof of the speeder. Jett reached up and hit a button, causing the front part of the roof to fly off and tumble behind us. I turned around to see 3 speeders chasing us, two of which had to swerve to miss the flying section of roof. Jett glanced back at me. "Are you just gonna sit there, or are you going to put that rifle to work?"

I suppressed an annoyed grunt, released my rifle from my back and, balancing on the center console, stood up out of the speeder and aimed at our pursuers. I targeted the speeder closest to us and immediately sighted a Weequay hanging out the passenger side. I fired off a burst, causing the lead speeder to juke to my right, but not before two bolts hit home; one in the throat, the other in the right eye. The Weequay's body immediately went limp began bouncing unnaturally as the body dangled half in and half out of the vehicle.

The lead vehicle dropped back allowing another to take charge of the pursuit. A yellow, open top, four-seater accelerated rapidly and pulled up on the driver's side of us. A burly human quickly stood up and launched himself out of his speeder onto the roof of ours. He started to fall off the back when, at the last second, his left hand caught the edge of the opening I was standing in. I brought the butt of my rifle up, as he reached back to pull a blaster off of his right hip, and quickly smashed it into his face three times before he was dazed enough that he lost his grip and tumbled off the back of the speeder. He hit the pavement and rolled twice before skidding to a stop. I quickly brought my rifle back down and swung the weapon to my right. I flicked the fire selection switch to full auto and began spraying the remaining occupants of the speeder next to us. Four bolts struck the driver, killing him, causing his body to slump over the steering wheel, and sent the vehicle veer to its left and smash into a nearby storefront, instantly bursting into flames.

The lead vehicle accelerated again and came up on the passenger side of us. I was thrown to my right and almost lost my grip on my rifle as Jett juked right into the speeder. I ducked back inside and glared at Jett from behind my visor.

"Are you trying to get me killed?" I yelled. The speeder shuddered and veered slightly to the left as the driver of the opposing speeder returned Jett's hit with one of his own. A flash of light drew my attention forward and I immediately spotted a larger hover truck heading straight toward us. Jett tried to get over, but the speeder on my side anticipated our move and bumped us back into the truck's path. Jett jerked the wheel slightly towards the right then quickly juked back and hit the brakes. The speeder on my side, seeing us trying our previous maneuver again, veered toward us, unfortunately for him, we simply weren't there to be hit. As soon as we were behind the opposing speeder, Jett slammed on the accelerator and switched lanes so that our position had just switched. I looked to my left at the occupants of the speeder, their faces ashen with terror as they knew they had no time to react. We flew past as the hover truck slammed into the lead vehicle head on, erupting in a fireball that blocked the entire street.

Jett quickly set us on a course toward my ship and soon we were screeching to a halt in front of the abandoned docking area where my ship was birthed. The entryway was a single sliding door covered by a decent sized overhang with two large pillars supporting it. To the left of the door stood a large wheeled tool chest and a few obligatory plasteel crates. We jumped out of the speeder and began to walk at a brisk pace when the sounds of multiple speeders approaching, made us turn around. My heart sank as I saw the last of our pursuers, flanked by two new speeders.

Without waiting for them to begin shooting at us we turned back around and began to sprint toward the docking bay doors. In seconds we reached the access panel that would open the door to the docking berth, and get us to my ship. I reached out and hit the activation switch. All that resulted was a loud, low, double beep. Jett and I looked at each other. I hit the button again, with the same result.

"Oh, you have got to be shabla kidding me!" I shouted.

Jett gave me a slight shove in the left shoulder. "Dozens of abandoned docking berths and you gotta go pick the one with a malfunctioning door?"

I was about to push Jett back but a blaster bolt sliced through the air between us, causing us to jump back. I looked to my left and saw that Grando's thugs had taken up positions behind their speeders and had their weapons all pointed in our direction, More bolts began to sizzle all around us. I looked bad to Jett.

"Hold them off while I try to hot wire this thing," I ordered. Jett grabbed the tool chest and swung it in front of us, its rusted wheels screeching in protest. He drew his blaster and began returning fire. Every now and again I'd hear Jett take a shot followed closely by a pained groan, letting me know that Jett was whittling down our attackers. A good thing as I pulled a multi-tool from one of the pouches on my belt, pried off the cover to the door control panel, and began splicing wires. Blaster bolts began to eat away at the plaster walls around us. I worked as quickly as I could, splicing the last two wires together and got…nothing. I grunted and began re-splicing the wire, trying to bypass the locking mechanism and get power directly to the door opening apparatus.

"How much longer Marek?" Asked an annoyed and inpatient Jett.

"Don't rush me, Jett!" I yelled as I tried another combination of wires to no effect.

"Oh look, they're bringing up more guys."

"I'm working as fast as I can here."

"Oh, even more, are coming now. Not to sound dire, but I can't hold off this many guys at once." I heard the sound of a canister roll away from us and knew Jett had rolled a grenade towards a couple of thugs who charged our position. A loud thud, followed by screaming and falling debris confirmed my suspicions.

"Any time now Marek."

"I heard you the first time Jett. I almost got it." I had tried every combination I could think to try, with this being my last one. I spliced the last two wires together…and…nothing. No hiss. No door opening to reveal my ship and safety. No continuing on my mission to rescue Mahr'la. There I stood, a man who had thus far, taken out a Jedi, destroyed a pirate base on one planet, and fought my way _through_ another, only to be thwarted by a shabla door! In frustration, I pulled my blaster, screamed, and fired 3 shots into the door panel. A moment later the door flew open in a show of sparks.

"I don't believe it" I muttered to myself. I turned around to find Jett barely holding off Grando's men. I stepped up to Jett and tapped him on the shoulder. "Door's open, let's go!"

Jett nodded, "'Bout damned time! Let's toss a couple of grenades their way first."

He and I both grabbed a thermal detonator from our belts and with a nod from me, activated them and tossed them towards our foes, forcing them to dive for cover. Jett and I didn't waste any time. We immediately turned and sprinted through the door, not even looking back at the explosion the shook the front of the docking bay. There she stood; _Vulen's Pride_ in all her glory. I smiled as I raced towards it, already going through the emergency launch procedure in my head. We reached the ship and climbed inside with Jett closing the entry hatch as I quickly made my way to the pilot's chair. I sat down and began turning on the ship's systems. The entire ship began to hum as the engines flared to life.

I flipped a few more switches, warming up the repulsor drive and the turret mounted cannons. A good thing as blaster bolts flew passed the cockpit. I looked to my left to see Grando's thugs begin to pour into the bay. The two leading the charge, a human and a Bith, exploded in a spray of super-heated tissue and bodily fluids as Jett, who without being ordered to do so, had gone to the turret controls and began blasting at our attackers.

I reached out with my left hand and, grabbing the repulsor control, I began to feed power to the repulsor lifts. The ship began to rise out of its docking berth, clearing the bay in a couple of seconds. As it did so, I switched power from the repulsors to the engines and started the ship on an outbound trajectory. Once we achieved high orbit, Jett moved back to the co-pilot's chair behind me and flopped down into it. From behind me, I heard him flicking several switches and knew he was checking the radar for any sign of pursuit.

"Scopes are clear." He reported. "None of the ships in orbit are moving to intercept, nor are there any ships coming from the planet itself."

"Copy that. Keep scanning until we are clear of the gravity well." I replied. I moved my left hand to the control stick, reached forward with my right, and began inputting the coordinates for our next destination. After the ship's computer verified the coordinates, it took only a few minutes to get clear of the planet's gravity well, allowing me to throw the hyperdrive switch, launching us into the swirling vortex and relative safety of hyperspace.

Behind me, I heard Jett pop the seal on his helmet and ease it off with a sigh. He gently set it on the floor next to him and stretched back in his seat.

"Well, _that_ was fun." He teased. "It was lucky that I found you when I did."

_Time to get some answers _"Yeah, about that…" I pulled my blaster out of its holster, swung around and pointed directly at Jett's face.

Jett lowered his hands which were clasped behind his head. "What the hell's gotten into you? Put that thing away will you?"

I scoffed, "Do you take me for a complete di'kut?"

"Well…"

"Shut it mirsheb." I ordered. I tried my best to let my annoyance and anger shine through. "You betrayed Mahr'la to the Black Skulls. I come here looking for them, and you just _happen_ to find me as I am trying to get away from them? Give me one good reason why I shouldn't drill you right here."

"You think I'm setting you up?" He looked genuinely hurt at the insinuation. "I came here to help you."

"Why should I believe you?"

"Because, you di'kut, if I were going to betray you, I would have done it before you even left Bastion." He looked at me with utter disbelief. "You, you're amazing you know that? I violated a contract with a client to spare your life, I let you _hit me_, I upgrade your equipment for free, I give you information on that same client that will help you hunt them down and kill them guaranteeing I won't get paid, and on top of that, I saved you _again_ here." He folded his arms across his chest. "So put that blaster away before one of us ends up dead."

I hesitated. A part of me was screaming to shoot him now before he had a chance to betray me. After all, it was because of Jett that I was fighting my way through the ranks of the Black Skulls to find Mahr'la in the first place. Everything I had experienced since leaving Bastion could be placed squarely on him. That was the emotional side of me. The analytical side, however, pointed out that Jett _could_ have betrayed me many times over before I left to find Mahr'la. The fact that he was here and _had_ saved my shebs, did go a long way to soothing over my anger, however, I was not yet ready to fully trust my longtime friend again.

I slowly lowered my blaster and reholstered it. I reached up, popped the seal on my helmet, eased it off and set it on the floor beside me. I sat there for a few tense seconds. I set a scrutinizing look on my face to let Jett know I was very suspicious of him and in no mood for games. While the emotional side of me told me to trust him, my analytical side told me that I still needed to get more information from Jett before I could even begin to do so. Starting with:

"How did you find me anyway? I never told where I was going when I left Bastion."

"Yeah, but I knew you had come from Genth and I figured that's where'd you'd start looking for the Black Skulls."

"How'd you figure that?"

"Because it's what _I'd_ do." He unfolded his arms and leaned back in his seat. "So I went to Genth, stopped at the Safety Office near the spaceport -and met your friend Gerron, nice guy by the way, and once I explained what I was doing, he gave me what information he could, saying that you were going to need all the help you could get. He also chastised me for the way I upgraded your rifle. Sorry about that." He finished, looking rather sheepish.

I gave him my best sarcastic look. "Oh no problem, the rifle just shorted out on me in the middle of a firefight that's all." I shook my head. I needed to get back on topic. "You still haven't explained how you got to Irith."

He held up a placating hand. "I'm getting to that. It turned out that Gerron had a female twi'lek in one of his holding cells. Apparently, she escaped before the warehouse you raided blew up. Gerron had caught her a few days after you left trying to break into a speeder and locked her up. As soon as she saw me, she told exactly where you went. When I asked her why she'd give up the information so easily, she showed me her bandaged lekku and told me she'd learned her lesson with the last Mandalorian that questioned her. And might I just add: slicing up her lekku? Nice."

I shrugged. "Eh, I did what I had to." I shifted in my seat. "Ok, so you told me _how_ you got here, but I think there is a more important question. Why? Why are you here?"

Jett looked up and away from me as he seemed to seriously consider his response. Finally, he sighed, shrugged and looked back at me. "For a couple of reasons. First and foremost is that my girl told me she'd leave me if I didn't help you."

My face scrunched up in confusion. "Your _girl_? Since when are you dating anyone?"

"Actually we're married."

"What?! When did you even meet, much less get married?"

"We met before you left Bastion."

"Really?" I asked, giving him a dubious look. "Then how come I don't remember meeting her?"

Jett shrugged again chuckling. "I don't know, maybe because you were so self-involved at that time you weren't paying attention to _anything_." I nodded as I had to give him that one. "At any rate, Kira, that's my wife, told me that if I didn't go and help you, she'd assume I had betrayed you, had no honor, and leave me."

I nodded approvingly. "Nice. Short and to the point. Is she a fellow Mand'ad?"

"Well, she is _now_ whether she wants to or not!" He started laughing and I allowed myself to join in. "After this is all over, I'll introduce you." His face suddenly became serious. "So are we good? Fresh start?" He asked, holding out a gloved hand.

I took a moment to consider it, then nodded and shook his hand. "Cin vhetin ner'vod." In the back of my mind, however, I knew that there would always be a part of me that would be suspicious of him. Which was just as well as blind loyalty and trust can get you killed as easily as not wearing proper armor.

I turned back to my monitors and double checked my heading. Then, having confirmed everything was correct; I leaned back in my seat, crossed my arms over my chest, lowered my chin, and closed my eyes. A brief vision of Mahr'la's face flashed before me making my heart quake. I wanted to find her so bad I could taste it. I still had no idea what I would even say to her when I found her, but the fact that I was that much closer to my goal excited me and left me with a pleasant thought as I began to drift into the nothingness of sleep. I was almost there when I felt a nudge at my back. I tried to ignore it and kept my head down. Then Jett clipped me upside my head.

"Hey wake up."

I opened my eyes, turned, and glared daggers at Jett. "What?"

"You still haven't told me where we're going?"

I grunted and turned back around. I reached forward and sent our navigation data to Jett's console. "Take a look."

I didn't bother to turn back around as I heard Jett's fingers typing away at his console to bring up the information. A few seconds passed before he said, "Teth?"

I nodded. "That's right, Teth. Deeper into Hutt space we go."

**Chapter 12**

"The swirling vortex of light that is Hyperspace." At least that's the cliché I'd heard since I was a child. Personally, I could never stare at it very long before I started feeling sick to my stomach. Unfortunately, the trip to Teth took a bit longer than I would have liked since the abrupt nature of our departure from Irith had left us without adequate food supplies and a powerful need to use the refresher (which we didn't have on my ship). This forced us to drop out of hyperspace early, make a slight course correction, head for a system with a space station, which for the life of me I cannot remember the name of, refuel, resupply, complete our personal business, and head back out. By the way, you can tell this is a story that actually happened, as opposed to some other work of fiction, because I actually included the fact that I needed to relieve myself, which is something that all of the heroes we heard about in the stories from our youth apparently never did. At any rate, I was highly annoyed by the deviation we took since I wanted to keep moving and hated detours. That and the fact that you can only do so much in the cockpit of a star fighter, even if the Skipray was bigger and roomier than most. Eventually, you end up staring at the vortex and, in my case, feeling queasy after about 20 minutes.

Jett and I had hardly spoken since we left Irith and a large part of me wanted to keep it that way. I know psychological experts would probably say I was compartmentalizing my emotions in order to avoid a conversation, and the consequences of said conversation, as a means of insulating myself from being hurt, as Jett's perceived betrayal still stung a bit. Those psychologists can fling themselves into the nearest time/space anomaly for all I care. Besides, not talking to Jett also kept me from thinking about the one thing I knew I'd have to confront before this was all over, but wanted to delay as long as possible: my feelings for Mahr'la.

I tore my eyes away from the viewport as a wave of nausea washed over me. I lowered my head, looked at my knees, and took a couple of long breaths. I almost had my stomach under control when Jett nudged me from behind. Without turning around, I held up my index finger on my right hand. "Do that again and I _will_ throw up on you."

Jett chuckled, "How is it that a battle hardened Mandalorian, such as yourself, who has killed more pirates in the past few weeks than most people do in their lifetimes, is given an upset stomach by staring out into hyperspace?"

I still didn't turn around. "I am just _that_ good I guess." I let my response hang in as silence filled the ship. I closed my eyes again and took a couple more deep breaths to finish calming my stomach. Before I knew it, I fell into a blissful sleep that was cut short by the hyperspace alarm going off. I shot up in my seat, wiping the sleep from my eyes with my right hand. I looked down at the navcomputer display and queried our current destination.

"Looks like we're coming up on Teth," I said without turning my back. An odd silence hung in the air as I got no response from Jett.

"Jett?"

Still no response. I turn my head a little to the right.

"Jett?" I repeated a little louder.

Still no response. I turned fully around and found Jett leaning back in his seat asleep, head cranked to the left, mouth open, with a line of drool coming out of the left side of his mouth. I rolled my eyes, smacked him in the leg and shouted, "JETT!"

Jett jumped in his seat, startled, and blurted out, "What?! NO! I didn't eat it!"

I laughed out loud. "What?"

Jett blinked a couple of times and shook his head. He quickly righted himself, his face turning a little red with embarrassment. "Umm..wha.I was just dreaming of…umm…I don't actually remember."

I chuckled again, "Ok ner vod, well we've arrived at our destination. Would you mind doing a scan for any structures that look like a place where pirates might hole themselves up in and a landing zone far enough away that we can slip in under their radar?"

Jett rubbed his eyes a few times then began plunking away at his terminal. Within minutes he spotted a structure on top of a tall spire on a part of the planet that was still bathed in the darkness of night but closely approaching morning. "Looks like one of those old monasteries that Hutts like to take over. Hold on while I run a more thorough scan." After a few moments, he reported, "That palace is putting out a large thermal signature. The reactor running that place is at full tilt…"

"Meaning…?"

"Meaning they're running a lot of equipment, or they have a lot of personnel drawing on the system. Either way, assuming this is the place, we are going to be vastly out gunned on this one."

I shrugged, "I've been out gunned this entire trip. Why should this place be any different?"

Jett leaned forward in his seat. "Marek, so far, in your last two encounters, you've had surprise on your side, plus the fact that you were facing people who were just getting into the pirating lifestyle. With everything I'm seeing on the scanners here, and from my own dealings with them, these guys are well equipped, and that means they've earned that equipment. There's also the very real chance that they've spotted us and know we're coming."

I shrugged, "But even if they HAVE spotted this ship, they can't know who we are, much less what we're here to do."

"You don't think Grando and his thugs could have called the Black Skulls?"

I thought about it for a minute. "It's possible but probably unlikely. From everything I saw at their first base, all communication flows from the top down so Grando's people may not have even known HOW to contact whoever was next up the chain. Second, Grando wasn't exactly pleased with the Black Skulls and had actually bought off almost the entire crew. And he definitely didn't seem to care that I killed their leader. Of course, he also wanted to force me to take over for the crew as his security chief, my refusal of which led to the shootout you helped me get out of."

A smile crossed Jett's face. "I was wondering what you had done to anger all those guys." His face then turned to a frown. "You know, if you were thinking clearly, you could have taken over the crew and learned more information about Teth from there without all the bloodshed and worrying about having angered a Hutt." He paused as if thinking then began typing away at his console.

"What are you doing?"

"Checking the holo-net from Irith to see if your 'altercation' made any local headlines." Jett's earlier smile grew. He glanced up at me.

"What?"

"You now have a price on your head."

My eyes went wide with shock. "What? Why? Refusing a Hutt normally won't land you a death mark."

Jett shook his head. "Nope, but killing one will."

That surprised me. "I didn't kill him though. In fact, he was shouting at his men to apprehend me as I ran out of the place. That was right after I threw down a flashbang and a smoke grenade." I stared at the ceiling trying to recall the events. "I never shot at or near him; in fact, I hadn't even drawn my blaster until I got close to the main entrance. Does the story say what supposedly killed him?"

Jett's lips moved as he silently read the story. "It says that Grando died as part of a gas attack on the casino, perpetrated by you. My guess is that the smoke grenade was a little more harmful than you thought."

I grinned in spite of myself. "Well, I guess that's one way to add to my reputation." I tapped at the display in front of Jett. "So you think this palace is the place?"

Jett shrugged, "Can't tell for sure, but it's where I'd start looking." His eyes darted around the radar as he scanned the area. A few moments later he tapped the screen. "Here, I think I found us a nice landing spot. Give me a moment and I'll send it to your screen."

I turned around and brought up the scan results. The landing zone he selected looked pretty good all things considered. Nestled in a rock outcropping that would shield the ship from any passersby, plenty of canopy cover from surrounding trees, and a good 20 kilometers away to allow us to approach on foot and limit the chance that we would be spotted. After I maneuvered the ship into position and landed, I powered down the ship and set to work gathering up my gear. I moved towards the back of the ship, opened a small cargo compartment, pulled out a small duffle bag, and began to load extra supplies. I added dry food rations, water packs, and enough ammo for my blaster pistol and rifle to take down a small army. I also pulled out one of my spare cleaning kits, closed the compartment, moved my duffle to the side and sat down with my back against the starboard wall just before the turret station and the main hatch, and began dutifully taking apart and cleaning my assault rifle and pistol.

Jett walked over and opened the same cargo hold, grabbed his own blaster, sat down next to me, and began cleaning his own weapon. Without conscious thought we slipped back into an old dynamic I had forgotten we had. When we were kids, we would often work in our fathers' garages; cleaning, building and repairing weapons and armor. After so many years of working together, we formed a strong bond to the point where we didn't even need to speak to each other to know what we were doing and how to maximize our time and effort. Fast forward to now and here we were, working on weapons the way we had as kids. For the first time in a long while I began to feel a reconnection with the person I was back then. That connection, I knew, would combine with the person I now was and create a greater whole, but enough of me waxing all poetic-like.

We were soon done with our preparations, including trying to camo my ship as best we could, and trudging our way through a rain forest that as dense as it was hot and humid. Our conversation was sparse as we made our way through the thick undergrowth; splitting our concentration between looking out for any signs of surveillance and trying not to trip on the undergrowth. After a couple hours of walking, the spire came into view, the morning sunlight gleaming off of the castle nestled at the top. I found myself, for the briefest of moments, wishing I had some of those fabled Jedi powers. I had heard tales that a Jedi could sense the presence of people they were close with, even at a distance, and it sure would have been nice to be able to confirm Mahr'la's presence in the castle. Unfortunately for me though, I had only myself to rely on, which meant a long climb up a steep rock face.

My momentary daydream was broken by a warning from Jett which forced me to dance around a charred, rusted piece of metal. Looking around the jungle in front of me, I noticed a growing field of debris which was slowly being reclaimed by the local plant life.

"Looks like the aftermath of some sort of battle" Jett commented. "Clone Wars maybe?"

I kept scanning ahead as far as I could when something caught my eye. "Definitely Clone Wars" I replied and pointed out to what I had just seen. "Look, there's an old LAAT gunship. It looks like it was shot down but the hull appears surprisingly intact and well preserved."

Jett shrugged, "Well let's head that way and find out for sure. At any rate it should be a decent spot to set up camp until dusk" he said turning in the direction I had just indicated. He lifted his head as he appeared to be scanning the looming spire in front of us. "Then we can come up with a plan on how to infiltrate that monstrosity."

I glanced over at him as I started moving, "I think with a cliff face that steep and high, the only thing we can do is just pick a starting point and start climbing."

"True," Jett replied "but we should still plan a route up." He turned his head slightly toward me. "Luckily for you, I've already scanned the cliff face."

"Well thank you 'Mandalore the Planner'," I said dripping with sarcasm, "your place in the Manda is assured!"

We shared a brief chuckle and then fell into a silence as we made our way to the crashed gunship. When we finally reached it a few minutes later, we took time to survey our surroundings and I found that my initial assessment of the craft was fairly off. To say that the craft looked intact would only be applicable if a stand of trees weren't literally holding the upper half of the craft off the ground and the only way I could say that it was 'well preserved' would be if the bottom half of the ship were actually attached to the top half. Still, the vessel provided shelter from inclement weather, and the surrounding brush screened us from view so it was a fairly good place to camp for the day.

We went about setting our gear down and getting settled when I notice Jett had removed his bucket and was staring at me with a look of concern. After a brief and uncomfortable silence I decided to force the issue. "What?" I asked.

Jett glanced about as if searching for the right words on the jungle floor. Finally he looked me square in the eyes. "So have you made up your mind?" repeating a question he had asked earlier on the ship.

The question stung me as I thought that I had been able to successfully deflect it by keeping busy, but here and now, with nothing else to do, I had no choice. Still in order to answer the question, I had to do some actually thinking and confront my feelings. The thought of doing that made me shudder, so I decided on another deflection tactic: denial. "Make up my mind on what?" I asked, as if I didn't already know.

Jett's expression changed from one of concern to extreme annoyance and he looked at me as if I were a child. I may as well have been for the lame excuse I just gave. Jett wasn't buying it either. "C'mon Marek, you're not that stupid and you know it." He crossed his arms in front of his chest. "Have you made up your mind on how you feel about Mahr'la?"

And there it was, out in the open, plain as day, and any other analogy you want to use. I had to answer, but I couldn't bring myself to say anything so I just let out a meek, "I don't know."

"Well good," he replied, surprising me, "you get to take the first watch." he walked over to where he laid his gear down under the top of the gunship, fluffed his backpack up as much as anyone could every fluff a backpack filled with ammo, food, and climbing gear, and laid down resting his head on the pack.

I walked over and glowered over him. "Why does my emotional state mean I get first watch?" I asked, as if I didn't already know the answer.

Jett gave me a look that told me he knew that I knew how weak my question was and sat up. "Because, if you aren't sure about your feelings for the girl who is hopefully in the building on at the top of that," he said pointing to the spire, "then I am going to grab my gear and walk back to your ship. I am not about to risk my life for someone who is about to try and rescue a girl, when he hasn't even reconciled his feelings for her." He sighed and closed his eyes as he rubbed his temples with his fingertips. "So I am going to get some shut eye, while you are going to stand watch and think. With that he lay back down and closed his eyes.

I wanted to protest again, but stopped myself as I realized the utter futility of that effort. I turned around, began a slow looping patrol around our campsite, and dedicated myself to reconciling my feelings for Mahr'la. I managed to zero in on a shortcut: instead of trying to come to a conclusion over whether or not I actually loved her, I instead worked on why I was so reluctant to admit it. My previous relationship with Natassi certainly had a great deal to do with it. Over the past 8 years with her I had systematically destroyed my relationships with most of my family, not to mention a few family gatherings, cut out all of the most important people in my life, and turned my back on just about everything it meant to be a Mandalorian. To be quite honest, I was surprised that my father hadn't disowned me. I did all these horrible things, because I was convinced that it would win and hold the love of a woman. I had endured, humiliations and tests of loyalty that would have driven just about anyone else away, and yet I stayed, trying to prove myself to a woman who ultimately was unfaithful to me. I felt a great deal of unease as I finally admitted to myself that Natassi had hurt me a lot more than I had ever realized.

So now what about Mahr'la? I had already admitted that with her, I had been more myself than at any other time that I can remember. It was true that I hadn't known her for all that long, but the connection I felt to her was undeniable. In the short time we had known each other, she proved herself to be more loyal and caring than Natassi had ever been. She made me into a better person, and with her I had become more of a Mandalorian than I had ever been. Suddenly, the memory of the day Mahr'la left me came flooding into my head and I was wracked with guilt, shame, and anger. How could I have been so stupid as to agree to see Natassi? How could I have hurt Mahr'la so badly as to make her leave? Out of the two of them, if anyone deserved my love and devotion, it was Mahr'la hands down and yet, I drove her away. It was an action that ultimately led to her getting captured and me being on the current path that I was on. But did I love her? I had started to wrestle with this on my ship and it really all came down to what it mean to be a Mandalorian.

Every Mand'ad, an individual Mandalorian, from the time they are a child or first adopted into a clan, memorizes the Resol'nare or Six Actions which form the central tenets of our life and how we define ourselves: wearing our armor, speaking Mando'a (our language), defending yourself and your family, raising children as Mandalorians, contributing to our clan's welfare and rallying to war by a Mand'alor.

So, I decided to see how I matched up now. Well we haven't had a Mand'alor worth their weight in Hutt spit in generations, but I know I would answer the call if a worthy candidate took up the mantle so there were no worries there. I had always worn my armor and never stopped speaking my native tongue, much to Natassi's chagrin. In a way, by getting back to my roots I was contributing to my clan's welfare by becoming a productive member of my clan again. I never really stopped being able to defend myself and would definitely come running now to their defense in a heartbeat, but I had burned so many bridges with them over the years that all I could do was hope that they would still come back to mine. Raising children? Well I hadn't got to that part yet, which brought me back to my relationship with Mahr'la and whether or not I loved her, and yes that meant love her enough to marry her, because if I was going to risk my life to save her, I better be doing it for someone I hoped to spend the rest of my life with and raise our own warriors. But, did I love her?

You see, to us, love and knowledge are very closely related. It wouldn't be too far of a stretch to say that they are almost inseparable. To allow myself to be betrayed by Natassi, and the fact that it came as such a shock to me, proved that I didn't really know her as well as I thought I did and neither did I allow her to truly come to know me in return. I had tried to become what I though she wanted me to be, instead of letting her get to know the real me and deciding whether or not I was good enough that way. So with that as my guiding principle, I never really loved her and I had shown nothing but contempt for my own culture, but with Mahr'la I had rediscovered that heritage and my connection to it was stronger than ever. Mahr'la knew me for exactly the person I was, and I didn't feel the need to pretend and I knew she had felt the same way around me. I knew her more completely in the brief time we had together than I had ever known anyone.

And there it was. Love and Knowledge. I knew Mahr'la better than anyone, therefore I knew that I _loved_ her more than anyone I have known before. With that realization, the guilt, shame, and anger I felt just moments before melted away. I loved her. I knew I did and to deny it would be to deny reality. But could I tell her? And, more importantly, would she return my feelings? I figured I would deal with that when the time came.

My revelation sparked a new sense of purpose in me and I spent the rest of my time on watch going over the scans Jett had pulled of the spire and began to plan our assent, saving everything to my datapad. It wasn't too much longer before Jett woke up and relieved me on watch. He stopped in front of me and raised his eyebrows silently asking me if I'd made up my mind. I answered by handing him my datapad, popping the seals on my helmet, and lifting it off to reveal a feral grin which he returned. He patted me on the shoulder as I passed by him to go lay down. My head hit my pack and I closed my eyes to visions of Mahr'la in my head. I'd never slept better.

**Chapter 13**

When Jett woke me up, it was dark, and I mean "dark" dark. There was no light from the orbiting moon and even if there was, I doubt much of it would have made it through the dense forest canopy. That was good as it would mask our approach to the spire and make infiltrating the complex at the top that much easier. We took some time gathering up our gear and going over our ascension route, which Jett made only slight modifications to. We were going to ascend in three stages, making adjustments to the route at each stage as needed, with the intent on ending up at a door in the rear of the spire that looked like, from what we could see from visual range, it was once a private landing pad that had been mostly destroyed with a large circular hole cut in the door leading out to it that wasn't yet repaired.

We kept quiet as we made our way to the spire itself, slinking our way through the dense brush, using our night vision in our helmets to help see. Off in the distance ahead of us we heard a rustle in the trees followed by what sounded like the buzzing of extremely large insects; insects that I had yet seen and secretly hoped I would never have to. Within 45 minutes, we had reached the base of the spire. We both double checked our gear and readied our ascension guns. Now you may be wondering why we didn't just climb straight to the top in one ascent if we had the equipment that would've allowed us to do so, well to start, we didn't have enough cable in our guns to allow us to reach the top in one go. Secondly, I try not to make a habit of entering an enemy position through the front door when I know that I am severely out gunned and out manned, and on top of that, if I did have an army of Mando'ade at my back, I would have my fighters and transports destroy any rooftop defenses and just drop squads at the top of the spire once a landing zone was cleared. As it was, there was just the two of us, so sneaking in through a conspicuous hole in the back of the spire was our best bet.

We raised our guns, aiming at the spot for the first leg out the climb. I pulled the trigger first with Jett following a moment later. Sharp durasteel hooks launched into the air and stuck into the cliff side about 2 meters apart from one another. We then hit a button on the underside of our guns that started a winch and clipped the guns to our belts. Slowly we began to rise off the forest floor, allowing brace ourselves against the cliff wall and "walk" up. Within 15 minutes we reached the end of the first leg. I reached into one of my larger pouches and grabbed a nut (a metal wedge threaded on a wire with a loop at the end for any of you who aren't rock climbers) attached to a carabiner. I wedged the nut into a crack in the cliff face and then hooked the carabiner onto a loop in my belt, testing it to make sure it was as secure as it could be. I then reached up and detached the cable from the hook embedded in the rock, reached into another pouch, grabbed a spare hook, attached it to the cable, unclipped the ascension gun and aimed for the next the next designated point and fired. To my left Jett did the same.

The entire climb went very smoothly and, before we knew it, we were standing on a small ledge in front of the door. I quickly flipped down my range finder and switched my visuals to scan for heat signatures. Scanning the wall in front of me, I saw no guards standing by the door or anywhere nearby it. I switched back to night vision and looked over at Jett and motioned to him that the door was clear. Carefully we brought out our weapons and climbed inside a dark room that was so dank, I was able to smell the moisture in the air through the filters in my helmet.

106


End file.
